Forget Former Things

"Sometimes without concious realization, our thoughts, our faith, our interests are entered into the past. We talk about other times, other places, other persons & loose our living hold on the present. Sometimes we think if we could just go back in time we would be happy. But anyone who attempts to re-enter the past is sure to be dissapointed. Anyone who as ever revisted the place of his birth after years of absence is shocked by the differences between the way the place actually is, and the way he has remembered if. He may walk along old familiar streets and roads, but he is a stranger in a strange land. He has thought of this place as home, but he finds he is no longer here even in spirit. He has gone onto a new and different life and in thinking longily of the past he has been given thought and interest to something that no longer really exists. This being true of the physical self, how much more true is it of the spiritual self?"- McBride

I love this quote... I love that McBride reminds me of what Jesus talks about all the time in the bible, how His Father, is the God of "I AM", which means God is with you in, God is your reality that surrounds you in the present, not God of "I WAS" of your past. This is so comforting to know that God is with us always, every moment of our lives, right NOW.

I know also that I will take this journey that McBride talks about, the feeling of returning to a place that has been your home for so much of your life. I know one day soon I will be leaving, one day yes for eternity to my real home, but also returning back to my town where I have grown up, the place that has many stories of my childhood, and teenage years, the place of comfort and security, where I feel like anywhere I go there will be someone I know.. a place I know will be hard to leave. I fear leaving for the sake of missing my family and friends, but I also fear what I will feel if I don't leave, the huge part of my heart that desires to explore new places, meet new people, feel challenged & having faith that God will provide and show up in incredible ways, and also to see more of this beautiful earth He created for us to enjoy.
Donald Miller's quote sums it up completely: "And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?
It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.
I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave." – Donald Miller “Through Painted Desserts”