Glimpses of Truth

Moving On!

Five years ago this past week, my dad died.  He would have been 100 years old.  Not many make it to 95 like my dad did, but not many people lived like my dad.  During those short years, he got to see more changes than probably any other time in history.  I could not begin to list all the things which changed, because the list would fill up this entire paper for a number of days. 

The things my dad experienced might have seemed small to the rest of the world, but as the years went by, as with the rest of us, the memories became huge.  As we grow older, we have the blessing of saying, “I remember when.”  It’s neat to revisit personally or usually in our minds the places and activities of the past.  Either way, we look in the rearview mirror at them as we move on to other experiences, many of which will receive a visit somewhere down the line.  Please don’t let the past keep you from experiencing the future. 

Personally, when I review the past, I realize that I have been gifted with something special.  I almost never remember anything which was bad.  It’s the good that I remember.  Even then, I may embellish the times just a little.  Why?  Why build on the good?  Well, there’s just too much good to be beat down by the bad.

Sometimes I just like to travel back to my first day as a new Christian.  The name “Jesus” took on new meaning.  It was no longer a name that I dreaded.  Now it was a name that brought excitement and zeal and purpose.  My life changed forever the day I finally invited Jesus to take up residence in my life.  The Bible became the Book from which God would speak to me.  I was born again.  I began a journey which is still on the move.  Deep?  No, not always.  Sometimes only ankle deep.  Those early days of my new life in Christ were the springtime where things seemed to be new and fresh.  But today it’s summer and fall, but still new and fresh things (God’s things) are bountiful.  It’s a good time for fruit and harvest.  As I grow older, my maturity, my development, (my diet) is a little different than it was.  “Little” is the key.  My intimacy with God is utmost.  Any distance from God is a frightening thing. 

My life, like most of yours, is packed with stuff.  Living fast-paced and complicated lives, facing all kinds of pressures – it’s just routine for most of us.  With all the changes which come our way and all of their pressures, whether we think they’re good or bad, I’m still reminded that everything around us is designed to make us dissatisfied with our present condition.  The enemy sees to that.

On my journey today I found this little quote from Isaac Watts in his hymn, “Am I A Soldier of the Cross?”  “This world is no friend of grace to help us on to God.” 

So I revisit, renew and refresh, so I can go on, cultivate that which has been planted, and be ready to plant again.