Sometimes I wonder why, the older we get, the more we tend to wander down 'Memory Lane'. I think that often, when we look around in the present, we find much about life that seems too unfamiliar for comfort, and so this turns our thoughts to more comforting times.
So much has changed over the last few decades! Not only have tremendous advances been made in terms of things that are available to people but also there is a massive change in the way that people are. I recall that when I was growing up we would see images in our comics --- remember The Eagle? --- which portrayed the future.Pictures depicting the Space Age would show people with some sort of communication device fixed to their ears. Now we have Bluetooth! Computers, once forecast that only a handful would ever be built in the UK, are now commonplace in almost every home, young and old alike. Digital cameras allow us to take a photograph and upload it to our computer, and then send it by email to someone on the other side of the world, the whole operation taking only a matter of a few minutes. When I was a boy I would have marvelled at the idea of these things, yet never dreamt that they could ever come to reality, let alone be a normal part of everyday life in my lifetime.
Of course, such advances have been made for every generation probably, but sometimes it becomes easy to feel a little left behind by it all, and when that happens then we begin to feel uncomfortable. That's when we retreat a little down Memory Lane! What's happening is that our stability seems to be threatened by the fading of the familiar, and so we attempt to re-establish it by refreshing ourselves with thoughts of more stable days.
How easy it can be, in times such as these, when you feel that society has been turned upside down and inside out, when their is so little respect, when your views appear to count for less and less, to feel insecure about the future. Yet the future is one area that you can find security in! By accepting Jesus Christ into your life and walking with Him every day you find that not only does the present become calmer and more positive, the future is assured and so you realise that there is nothing to fear except fear itself.
Suddenly you start to look at things in a different light, and then you see far more positive things than negative. Reach out to others in a positive way and they will respond accordingly. Keep saying bad things about the 'youth of today' and you will create a self-fulfilling prophesy as far as your dealings with young people are concerned.
Yes, Memory Lane is a great place to wander down for a change, every now and then, but not to go down it and fail to come back! Whatever happens in the world around you there is always one great piece of stability. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! He never changes towards us. He's always there for us to walk in His footsteps, never alone, but with Him as our companion. What could be more stable and, yes, more familiar, than that?
