Longings for familiarity

WHy do we long for the past so much? im at starbucks, doing some homework when suddenly a song comes on that immediatley launches me to a memory of a really happy productive time in my life. suddenly i find myself missing my world then. (The song irronically enough was Bright Eyes "The first day of my life". For some reason this always launches me to my semester off from ozark. I was officially living over on 8th st. but in actually spent all my time at the 511. The group of people are what i miss the most. Chad, Nick, Broc, Kristy, Jake, Krystal, Alexis, Veronica, Sarah, Antonio, and all the others that came in and out of that place so often. I grew a lot that semester.)

As many issues and trails as i was facing at the time- it was still one of the best times of my life. Why is it that we often find ourselves longing to relive our past? Or even as i have often realized of myself, and something that others have told me- that we sometimes wish to live in a different era. What would it have been like to live during the time of Jesus- right there next to him following him areound Israel. Or during the time of Ceaser, Napolean, there fighting against the holocaust, being active during the writing of history- and somehow being able to be more fully alive then than we are now. Maybe the reason we long for thee past is that it is safe. If we were able to go back to that time with the knowledge we have now we would know that everything was going to be ok- and that the moment we were living in would seem more special since we would realize how short that period of time really is.

Maybe the reason we arnet fully alive now, like those who shaped our world before us were, is that we dont realize the gravity of what is at stake in the here and now. Or that we dont realize how special and good the period of life that we are living in really is. Very soon change will come again and leave us remeniscing of this current stage of life we are experiencing. Longing for were we are now. longing to converse wth the people and relationships we now have and are close to. However this age of improtance that is the here and now never leaves us. This current age follows every moment. It always has been and always will be. The most important time in your life and in history is the present. This is an ever true reality. As it has been said 'it is up to every generation to find its own revolution', something worth fighting for, and to grow ciilization and more specifically our own life into something closer to what we long for, what it should be.

Maybe this is the difference between those that move this world, that change lives, affecet people for the good and bring about the kingdom of God. Maybe it is that they are willing to live fully in the here and now- not in the ever progressing past, or wishing and reminiscing about it, wishing to change something in it. maybe they have wrestled with, have come to terms with, and understand the emenance of their own impending death. The world does not need you to ask her what it needs particularly, because it needs you simply to live fully. Because that is what changes the world. People who are experincing abundant life.

Frankl (someone i often refer too) says "Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first." That kind of sums it up.

In a similar statement Frankl says,
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. "
The world and life is now asking you and me- What now?