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			Desiring the past, despising the present-Appreciating today when yesterday is appealing
 
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            [June 27, 2008]  
			
			I 
			woke up yesterday at 10am, an hour before my first class (at Lincoln 
			Christian College).  I ate lunch at noon and finished up my classes 
			by 3pm.  I walked back to my dorm room and spent about an hour on 
			the Internet: Facebook, finding Photoshop brushes, YouTube, and 
			CNN.com.  After that I played about an hour of Halo 2. | 
        
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			 Then 
			I walked to dinner, checked my mail and sat in The Warehouse for a 
			bit.  Afterwards I worked on some homework and watched a couple 
			episodes of The Office.  By this time I was very tired, so I went to 
			bed. Many times I feel like I’m wasting my life 
			away, sitting through lectures that are structured by a flawed 
			system of education, playing virtual games, and constantly looking 
			towards the future, thinking things will get better.  A lot of times 
			we think about our past, when we were younger, and want our lives to 
			be like that again. 
			
			 I remember how much fun I used to have with my 
			friends at recess, Chuck E. Cheese’s, and DZ- Discovery Zone.  I 
			remember watching cartoons before having to stand outside for the 
			bus. It’s almost as if I am starting to think that 
			the best parts of life are in the past, when I was younger.  How 
			much time do we spend in frustration due to responsibilities, 
			deadlines, monetary issues and personal lives?  We feel all these 
			things and then long for the way things used to be. If we are all hung up on the past, and desiring 
			for that rather than what we have now, how does that reflect our 
			understanding and appreciation of our present lives?   
            
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			We are longing for something else, a different lifestyle, an easier 
			lifestyle, the lifestyle that we had when we were younger. Maybe instead of desiring this, we should learn 
			to embrace our past for what it was, and start living our present 
			lives to the fullest- now! We need to learn that our current lifestyles 
			can be just as appreciated and desired as the lifestyle we used to 
			have.  How does God see us when we desire our past more than what he 
			is giving us right now in the present? We have around 12 hours in our day to spend 
			doing whatever we want to do.  How are you spending your 12 hours?  
			When I looked at the way I spent my 12 hours, I was disappointed. 
			 
			
			 We could be doing blessed things for God in the 
			twelve hours, as well as having a God-centered attitude while doing 
			them. When was the last time we sat in silence?  When 
			was the last time we reflectively wrote in a journal or diary for 
			longer than 20 minutes?  When was the last time we actually prayed a 
			list of prayers that has been piling up? 
			We 
			should live our lives to the fullest in complete appreciation for 
			the present 
              
              [Jiryis Shaheen - LCC student)] 
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