There is no going back to yesterday. It is not coming back to us. We can try to recreate it into some false reality; we can insist, over protest, that it must be revived. Our memories record how it was and we want it back. We even forget that the culture that shaped it is gone and it is not coming back either. Time always leaves the past. Trees and weeds grow up over houses that were once filled with laughter. The old ways are gone, the “Greatest Generation” has exited the stage. We face the world that is and not the world that was. Charles Wesley’s words from the marvelous hymn, “A Charge To Keep” says, “To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill; Oh, may it all my powers engage to do my Master’s will!”
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly “Titus 2:11-12 (NRSV).
