Waves of Nostalgia, Basketball Memories and Turning the Page

Nostalgia can pounce on you sometimes.

Such a moment occurred a few days ago as I re-read some of the columns from when I served as sports editor for The Murray State News in college (some of my favorite years).

As I read one column, “Forever Young” (with a tipped hat to Jay-Z), the words resonated with my heart as much now as they did when I was writing about the basketball team losing in the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Maybe you need to read it too. Maybe you need permission to dream of better days and greater things. Permission to start a new chapter.

Let’s be brave enough to turn the page.

The following is an excerpt of the aforementioned column.

We can’t start a new chapter if we keep re-reading the old one.

We can’t live off past victories and past “failures” will consume and define us only if we let them. We can’t help others and identify with them through pain if we don’t first experience some ourselves, just as we can’t move on to a new section of our wall if we keep looking at the section we just built.

So, I’m going to take Coach Prohm’s advice and stay on my wall with my eyes up (Nehemiah 6:1-3), eagerly anticipating the next chapter God will write in the story of my life. It’s a new day and a new journey that brings with it a new adventure waiting to be experienced.

Let’s not be so caught up in the last adventure that we miss the one right in front of us. May we always learn from the past and look to the future but live contently in the present.