--Marty McFly, from "Back to the Future"
So here's my New Year's 2015 fantasy: I want to travel back in
time to exactly one year ago, to the close of 2014, and talk to my past
self. Give "me" some advice. I want to pull a Marty McFly and
jump back into time. If God or the universe or fate gave me a 2014 "do-over"
I readily confess I'd do things differently. I think most of us would
too. In reviewing the last 365 days, we all remember moments when we wish we'd
made another choice. Taken an alternate route on life's journey, a left rather
than a right. Answered "no" rather than "yes" or "yes"
when "no" was the right response.
Had the chance again to say "I love you" because we didn't have the
guts or the smarts or the courage to do so.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
The season of New Year's is a rare time in life when
humans can intentionally look back and look ahead. Resolve to change our lives going
forward. Face how we lived the past 52 weeks. So if you had the gift of being strapped
into a time traveling Delorean, and visiting your past self for a spiritual pep
talk, what might you say? How would you re-do 2014?
Me? I'd absolutely tell myself to worry a less. A LOT LESS! To instead trust that God and life so much of
the time works out, that most human anxiety is a complete waste of time,
an empty exercise in creating overwhelmingly negative outcomes that rarely if
ever come true. That so often when we worry, it is about people and situations
over which we have little or no control. I so regret how much precious time I
wasted in 2014, mired in my worry. Fearing what others were thinking. Brooding
about this possible scenario, that doomsday event! Sleepless nights. Distracted
days. And guess what? Almost always, whatever
I was angsting about did not happen. And
all those hours I spent in worry: all gone, never to return.
Memo to self: next year, worry less and trust God more.
I'd also tell my past self to spend less time online in the
cyber world, and more time off line, in the real world. In 2014, too often I was guilty of mindlessly
looking at my phone or surfing the net or watching YouTube videos or scrolling
through Facebook or waiting for a text. When I was bored, or waiting or unable
to just "be", I inevitably reached for my techno-addiction. Found myself in a crowd or at a gathering or
in a public space surrounded by like minded cyber zombies. Heads tilted down.
Fingers swiping across a screen. Eyes intently focused upon the
"latest" on Twitter or Snapchat or Instagram. Meanwhile, real life
connections-- face to face and heart to heart and voice to voice--seem rarer
and rarer. How many thousands of minutes did I lose last year to life in the
virtual world? Days, weeks perhaps.
Memo to self: next year, live more in the real world, live
less in the cyber world.
Lastly, I'd tell my past self to talk less and listen more.
To pontificate and judge others less, and instead be more curious in life, especially
about folks and ideas and lifestyles I may see as "different" than
me. It's been a tumultuous 2014, filled
with so many conflicts, fears and anger, grounded in a "them" versus
"us" narrative. Humanity split
wide open. Wars in the Ukraine
and Israel/Palestine and throughout the Middle East.
Cruel, so-called "religious" people using their ideas of God to
condemn, to oppress, to kill, even the innocent. Racial divisions and
mistrust.
Too often I've waded into these complicated affairs with my opinion which I also insist on
sharing with anyone who will listen. My prayer for me and the rest of humankind
in the year to come is that we'd open our mouths less and open our ears more.
That we'd have the wisdom to think before we speak. That not every single
opinion needs to be posted or blogged or proffered. That God-inspired humility,
not hubris, is what our world really needs.
Memo to self: talk less and listen more. Practice curiosity and humility.
We may not be able to time travel and give our past selves
advice about how to live a better life, repeat 2014. But this week we've been
given the gift of 365 new days, a whole new year, another God given chance to try
again.
Memo to self: how will you live in 2015? What did 2014 teach
you? You don't need a Delorean to answer those questions.
Happy New Year.
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