A few years ago the movie "Back to the Future" was so very popular that it had led many people's steps back into the movie theatres. Before watching it, some people might have thought that they would get a clue of how to go back to their own future through the movie. Unfortunately so far I haven't heard yet that anyone has really been in their own future as happens in the movie. Rather I have heard that some have been in their future in a mysterious way through near a death experience.
It is impossible to go back to the future in our present situation. Nevertheless most people wish and have a dream of what they will be like in the future. Since Martin Luther King Jr's (1929-1968) speech, " I have a Dream", the word, 'dream" has become an icon of the future life. The only way that people are able to go back to future is through the imagination, expectations and dreams of their own future life. A vague point is that a dream is a dream, which means it is not real. In order for each one's dream to become a reality, the person has to work hard for it and wait for a certain period of time until the dream unfolds sometime in the future. Despite of this, the Bible strongly encourages everyone, especially elderly people, to have their own dream of the future. "Then I (God) will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old people shall dream dreams and your young people shall see visions" (Joel 2:28).
On the other hand, it seems to be more difficult to go back to the past. It is also said that it is impossible to go back to the past, no matter how good and beautiful it was, so you have to move forward toward the future. It is true. But it is a common phenomenon that people more often, especially seniors, talk more about the past, the old good hay days than the future. A lot of the old good memories are saved in one's own memory files. From time to time they are spontaneously retrieved onto one's brain screen and people long for those times. They wish to go back to the past if it is possible.
Can we go back to the past? Yes, it is possible! One possible way and one available place where you can go back to in the past is to go back to church. Most church buildings have remained the same as before. Most of all in the sanctuary, it is always possible to meet exactly the same God whom you had met one day in the past. The same God will welcome you and treat you exactly the same way that He did in the past. God may welcome you even better than before. God is the same at all the times and always. Back to Church Sunday will be on 29th of September. Carlyle United Church and other churches are ready to welcome you to come back to the old good memory of God. A great paradox is that when you go back to God with the old good memory, then God will lead you into the best way of your future.
