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On a rating scale of 0-10, with 0 being mind-numbingly bogus, and 10 being totally awesome, how rad was your childhood?
Mine was pretty amazing -- at least many of the memories/recollection I have of it were. I was a solid product of the 80s: Big Wheels, Garbage Pail Kids, He-Man, Air Jordans and collecting baseball cards were just a few of the items of nostalgia from my childhood.
Some of my fond memories include riding in the back of my dad's pickup truck with the team to our baseball games. During family trips, my sister and I would ride facing backwards in the family station wagon third row seat as we cruised to our destination.
When not driving, we rocked pretty hard to the beat of Bon Jovi's newly released "Slippery When Wet" album at many a roller skating party. Our sports teams celebrated the season with a pizza party at "Gargano's," the local pizzeria, complete with a jukebox and pinball machines. Summers were spent at the community pool playing with friends and jumping off the high dives that actually existed back then.
I knew how to rock the fashion scene pretty hard as well. When I played soccer in the Fall and the temperatures would drop for our Saturday morning games, I proudly sported my heather-gray sweatpants underneath the team shorts I still wore on top! In warmer months, I successfully and confidently sported my white tube socks that were striped with colors at the top and pulled all the way up to my knees. If I'm not mistaken, I had actually a light blue matching tank top/shorts combo of straight velour. In the colder, snowy months, moon boots were the footwear choice for the day.
The best Friday nights, in my opinion, consisted of eating my mom's homemade pizza while watching "The Dukes of Hazard" on one of the four channels our roof mounted dial antennae could get at the time. When we awoke on Saturday mornings, it was non-stop cartoon watching in the morning until our parents forced us outside for the day.
I could write pages upon pages of memories from my childhood, and it's great to take a trip back down memory lane every once in a while. But if I am constantly living in the past, can I ever fully embrace the present, let alone prepare for the future? You see, as much as I remember the idyllic moments from my childhood, there were also many difficult times and mistakes that were made on my part as I navigated through childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.
Scripture tells us that there are two forces at play in our lives -- two forces that vie for control, one for good and one for evil. Jesus puts it this way: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Jesus is the giver of life. Satan is the taker of it. Jesus is the author of good. Satan, the author of evil. Jesus comes that we may not just have life, but have it to the fullest extent. Satan's presence entangles us in the sins, struggles and temptations that keep us apart from Christ and enslave us to our vices.
What are you beholden to in your life? Are you wrapped up in the memories of your past, whether good or bad, and the struggle that things will never be the same again? Are you living under the oppression of the past, or the hope of the future?
When Jesus says that he wants us to have life to the fullest extent, it indicates that we are not enslaved to the person that we were before we met him, but are set free to be the person he created us to be. Failures, sins and mistakes that we made previously no longer hold us captive. We are free to live in the power and presence of his love and Spirit in our lives. It's why the apostle Paul writes that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
You were created and designed to live in freedom. Live as you were created to. And feel free to reminisce every once in a while about the radness of your past, but also live in the hope of the present as well as the anticipation of God's design for your future in Him!
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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week's column comes from Rev. Scott Garman, pastor of Cedar Heights Brethren in Christ Church in Mill Hall.