ITS NOT ABOUT THE PAST
Its Not About the Past
Christopher B. Harbin
Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124; Mat 16:13-20; Romans 12:1-8
How quickly we forget. Our collective memory too often extends only as far as our individual memories. We set aside our knowledge of national events such as the Great Depression. We forget the realities of life prior to the Model T. We can't seem to recall that people in Amherst County lived without indoor plumbing as little as 15 years ago. Even so, we can get so wrapped up in the past that we forget about responding to present realities with purpose toward a definite future. How can we respect our past while looking forward to the future into which God calls us?
Can you believe there was a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph? That would be like forgetting we had been through the Great Depression, the Conservation Corps, Civil War, or Pearl Harbor. It is like the new generation believing that our current economic condition is the worst our nation has ever seen. If I did not experience it, then it must never have happened.
I wasn't there at the Alamo. I did not see the runs on the banks when my grandparents were newly-weds. I never knew the unavailability of cars or motorized mass transportation. I was not there when the sanitation workers went on strike or when schools first became integrated in this country. I never witnessed a segregated society, or the cutting and storing of ice from the Woodson's Mill pond. The American Cyanamid plant in Piney River is not part of my memory.
Among the Hebrews, there were those enmeshed in lamenting the loss of "the good old days." As we are so often wont to do, they glorified the past in certain aspects and forgot the rougher parts. They looked back to the glory of their national favor within Egypt while glossing over having to learn a new language, a new culture, and a different way of life in a new location. Some were so concerned with the loss of a privileged heritage they discarded any thought of ...
Christopher B. Harbin
Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124; Mat 16:13-20; Romans 12:1-8
How quickly we forget. Our collective memory too often extends only as far as our individual memories. We set aside our knowledge of national events such as the Great Depression. We forget the realities of life prior to the Model T. We can't seem to recall that people in Amherst County lived without indoor plumbing as little as 15 years ago. Even so, we can get so wrapped up in the past that we forget about responding to present realities with purpose toward a definite future. How can we respect our past while looking forward to the future into which God calls us?
Can you believe there was a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph? That would be like forgetting we had been through the Great Depression, the Conservation Corps, Civil War, or Pearl Harbor. It is like the new generation believing that our current economic condition is the worst our nation has ever seen. If I did not experience it, then it must never have happened.
I wasn't there at the Alamo. I did not see the runs on the banks when my grandparents were newly-weds. I never knew the unavailability of cars or motorized mass transportation. I was not there when the sanitation workers went on strike or when schools first became integrated in this country. I never witnessed a segregated society, or the cutting and storing of ice from the Woodson's Mill pond. The American Cyanamid plant in Piney River is not part of my memory.
Among the Hebrews, there were those enmeshed in lamenting the loss of "the good old days." As we are so often wont to do, they glorified the past in certain aspects and forgot the rougher parts. They looked back to the glory of their national favor within Egypt while glossing over having to learn a new language, a new culture, and a different way of life in a new location. Some were so concerned with the loss of a privileged heritage they discarded any thought of ...
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