Wishing Away

I have a good friend who was fond of saying, "Stop wishing away your life." By which, he usually meant something like "enjoy right now" or don't waste your days thinking about what you'd rather be doing. There was always something wise in that, but it wasn't until I put it together with a few other thoughts that it began to challenge me. I am aware that people see the world differently, some are very nostalgic and sentimental, and for them to wish away their life is to be always wishing the present was as good as the past. Likewise there are those like me who have been trained through a life of constant moving to believe that the next thing is bound to be better than this one. The next house, the next job, the next school. Always the next.
On its own I am not sure what to do with the wishing, although perhaps its something I must learn to control and use somehow, but when it is coupled with another problem I have it seems to me it may be very dangerous. The second problem is that I have no elder, pastor friends. This stems from a number of sources, but it seems to me that I have a base level distrust of people who lead churches and taught theology over most of the last century. Thank you postmodern skepticism. For all that I embrace about the moves of postmodernism, I am struck by the irony that as a good postmodern I am more open to history, but less open to my immediate historical predecessors. No doubt I could stand to learn a large measure from those who have striven to love God and love their neighbors over the course of their long lives, whether I agree with them all the time or not. The great difficulty it seems is acknowledging the grave dangers and disappointments of the end of modernism, without the practical excommunication of its leaders. Much easier said than done. This no doubt will call for charity, perseverance and patience on both parts, but I suspect we must pray for those saints who have gone before us, especially the recent ones.