Fall is officially here! It is a time of changing seasons. We may be sorry that summer is gone again, but fall has it’s beauty too. Every season is a time to reflect and adjust to the changes around us. But change is not easy. We often look back with fondness on the “good ole days” and struggle with the current season. Here is a little excerpt on change and seasons from chapter 3 of my new book: Everything is Meaningless: Finding Purpose in a World of Despair.
“According to God’s Word, focusing on the “good ole days” is not wise. Having the unique ability to remember primarily the things we miss about the past while forgetting its difficulties, is part of the human condition. We glamorize decades past and complain about the present. But the past was not as great as we might recall it to be in our selective minds and hearts. And the present will one day be remembered as the “good ole days” that we will long for again, despite how crazy that seems in the present.
Rather than glorify the past or only complain about the present, why not approach life as a mixture of both joys and challenges and focus on God’s blessings in the present? We cannot recreate the past or go back to how things used to be. It is fine to have fond memories, but it is not good to get stuck in the past as if everything were better back then. Most of what we remember about the past, in general, was not as great as we make it out to be. And the present is not generally as awful as we may think it is.”
Ben Foley 