Looking Back, Moving Forward

I was born in the seventies and grew up during the eighties. It was a great time - before health and safety really kicked in. We slid down near‑vertical grass hills on sacks. Our parents drove us around in cars that didn’t have seatbelts in the back. We didn’t need them, apparently. Cars in the 60's and 70's had vinyl seats with a particular smell - not like the new car smell of today, and in summer that vinyl heated to near surface of the sun temperatures. Our legs were only covered in thin stubbies, so we stuck to the seat like bubble gum to the bottom of a school chair.
All the windows would be down in summer because there was no air conditioning, and Mum would have done better wearing oven gloves while driving; the steering wheel offered nothing less than a third‑degree burn.
I remember walking into the staff room at Auckland Point School to a haze of cigarette smoke and laughter as the teachers chilled out on their lunch break.

Things were different. Maybe not better. Maybe just simpler.

We tend to look in the rearview mirror with a sense of nostalgia - a longing for what was. Famously, an American presidential campaign used the slogan “Make America Great Again,” or MAGA for short. When researchers surveyed people and asked, “When was America great?” the surprising thing was that young and old gave the same answer, and it wasn’t a particular era or year. 
They all said life was better in their early twenties. Our twenties are when most of us strike out on our own. Perhaps it’s the most exciting time because there’s a lot of risk and a lot of reward. It’s that fledgling moment as we leave the nest and head into the wide‑open world.

Jesus said in John 10:10,
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Life “full and overflowing” sounds like a great promise. It carries a sense of adventure, far more than being stuck to the back of a vinyl car seat. It invites us into an adventure with Him. While we all grow older, we don’t need to lose our sense of adventure with God. Here in our postcard perfect island life, it’s easy to find comfort in what we’ve accumulated or worked hard for. But life in Jesus fills the deepest thirst for Him.

I want to embrace every season God has for me. As I move into middle age, I want this to be a time not of sorrow over the loss of youth but of celebration like seeing a fully mature tree that has been allowed to grow exactly the way God intended it.
While I sometimes miss the simplicity of earlier times, now has more than enough to embrace and find joy in. That’s a promise from Jesus for today - for you and for me.
 
Dave Maharey