Thought #21.1

Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.

- Genesis 31: 13

But one thing, don't live in memories.  Don't remain in the past.  Always progress.  Always walk one.  This ending to verse 13 is a complete turnaround from the prior sentence.  The focus of this passage changes immediately from lingering in reverie to entering the future.  So God does give us reminders of who He is, who we know Him to be - connection - but with urgency the future is a step away.

You know, we take photographs and home videos and write in journals all to remember the past.  But it's time to open the shades; it's day time, the sun's out.  And it's time to put away the bottle of wine, turn off the VCR and box up the pictures.  The memories will always be there, locked away in a place where no one can steal from you.  For now, the day's calling.

I look out on the world from four stories up.  Clear blue skies.  Flowered trees.  And daisy lawns.  But my eyes can't see too far.  I can see where land and sky meet along the close horizon.  That's about it.  But I know there is so much more out there.  I know somewhere there are oceans and that somewhere there are stars, that somewhere my friends are going about their lives - somewhere the world is still spinning.

Exciting.  Mysterious.  So now it's time to wander.  It's time to let all those memories fast forward, quickening, hastening, forcefully pushing me to tomorrow.  Then those daily reminders of sunrise drifting to sunset preach a cycle of life.  And it's one we should follow.  Because we should change calendars.  And we should live for tomorrow while remaining in today, "stuck in a moment you can't get out of" (U2). 

Well it's time to find balance.  It's time to test the waters.  And this experimentation is what happens in your day-to-day.  Because there are no dead stops; you are in constant motion.

There is a certain balance afforded to the idea of memories and progression.  Verse 13 is split in two sentences.  One deals with our reminders whether they come by ontological form or our own developed photographs of past occurrences; then the other sentence deals with moving on, walking home where ever that home may be.

You see, we are not meant to linger; we are meant to use the past in catapulting us forward.

Progress.  Rewind.  Go.