What Excites You?

Reading early this morning in Dale Burke's book, How To Lead and Still Have a Life, I stumbled upon a sentence that halted my reading. It was this: "When your memories are more exciting than your dreams, you've begun to die" (page 115).

Memories are precious. I just reminded a family of that this week during a funeral. I'm grateful for memories of my dad and my wife's mother, who each passed away in recent years. I'm grateful for more distant memories of my wife's dad. But grateful describes my reaction to those memories, not exciting.

What if your most exciting thoughts are about what has already happened? What if life becomes all about preserving the past? How can one live in hope if we are always focused on what has already happened? What of God's promise to Israel in Jeremiah's prophecy: "I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11)? God's people lived for centuries in hope of the coming Messiah. The Christian life is a life of expectation. Adoniram Judson's famous words pulsate with hope: "The future is as bright as the promises of God." We miss the hope of God's coming blessings and challenges when we do not look expectantly to the future.

Certainly our past is foundational. Some people remember great pain in their past. Some look back and see that things were easier, simpler. But the key word is "exciting." Do we want comfort and to be problem free? Or do we want things that excite us, challenge us and cause us to grow?

I think Burke may be right. When memories excite us more than dreams, we may indeed have begun to die.