I Wish it Were Yesterday

Recently we moved.  We made a trek from Oklahoma to Oregon.  We left behind family and really dear friends for a land and people to whom God was calling.  Everyone asks, “Do you like it here?”

Our answer is always, “Yes.”  We really do.  But deep down inside, I wish it were yesterday.

I wish it were yesterday when everything was perfect.  When all of my friends laughed.  When everyone at church was happy.  When the skies were all blue.  When the grass was all green.  When the house always smelled like fresh bread.  When the bathroom smelled of blooming roses.

I wish it were yesterday.

I hear that all the time.  Our church longs for yesterday, when everything was perfect.  When we felt like family.  When all of the coffee was Folgers.  When everyone beat down our doors to study the Bible.  When every single person sang in worship.  When we had preachers that were at every crisis.  When we spent all our time praying for each other.  When no one complained.  When the bathrooms smelled of blooming roses.

I wish it were yesterday.

It is not yesterday.  It is today.

Today, our church is filled with people whose schedules are crammed with stuff.  Today, I wrestle with vampires that want to suck the life out of me.  Today, our church struggles with closeness.  Today, I have to work to keep my family close.  Today, our church is fighting to keep moving forward.  Today, I am trying to live up to the pastors of yesterday, and I don’t measure up well.

Today, the bathrooms smell like…well…bathrooms.

I wish it were yesterday.

But yesterday, I wished it was yesterday.  The day before, I wished it was yesterday.  The day before that….

Maybe yesterday doesn’t exist.  At least it doesn’t exist like we think it does.  Maybe it wasn’t perfect.  Perhaps yesterday, when it was yesterday, was like today, but we have forgotten what it was like because we prefer to remember it as better than it really was.

Maybe yesterday the bathrooms smelled like bathrooms.

I wonder what would happen if we saw the string of yesterdays as a reassuring touch from God saying, “I was there.”  I wonder what would happen if when we stood in today and thought about yesterdays we heard God say, “I am here too.”

I wonder if we would see today in a different light, and maybe we would relax because we know God is taking us somewhere and both yesterday (the real one) and today are steps along the way.