Nostalgia

A few posts back, I referred to my love of nostalgia. I love old movies, old books, old music and old friends. I enjoy thinking back and remembering past events. This has been on my mind a lot recently. I joined Facebook.com and have been reconnecting with so many of my old friends. Friends from Wilkes County, NC, as well as High Point, NC. So many that my brother, sister and I went to Liberty Bible/Christian College with, as well. Not to mention the various folks I've known through Liberty Church here in Birmingham and the family that I lived with in Japan. Years ago, Tricia Yearwood recorded a song called 'The Song Remembers When'. It's a beautiful song about lost love. It describes how just one song can transport you back to a certain moment. Isn't it amazing how a song, a picture, even a smell can take you back? I love those moments!

But I have a question. How much nostalgia is too much? The Old Testament tells us that the Lord commanded the Israelites to build monuments when He had carried them through something or when He had delivered them. But what about the times when we remember and treasure the wrong things? God didn't have them build a monument to Egypt, but when they were wandering, they kept longing for it. I wrote in my last post asking how slavery can be the 'good old days' and this post seems to carry that question on. What if we build monuments to the wrong things?

Maybe the long lost love who is now married? An abusive friendship? The devil we know as opposed to the one we don't? Do we occasionally crave the life of sin and slavery that we tossed aside to follow Christ? Are we letting His monuments gather dust and cobwebs while we polish the wrong ones? God is omnipresent and omnipotent. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are all the same to Him, He is in all three. We are not. We only have this moment to live in. Even if our good old days really were good, we are called to be His hands and feet now. How can I be His example today if I'm too busy listening to yesterday's music? Yesterday's conversations? Yesterday's relationships? We can't, and I think shouldn't, forget those parts of our past. They are the reasons that we are where and who we are now.

Balance is the key, of course. But how do you find something you're out of? Look to Him, our great Timekeeper. He holds all time in His hands. He's the One who built us through every step of our past. The Israelites looked back to all they previously had. Not to the One who delivered them. Therein lies the key. The monuments pointed heaven-ward. They were not reminders just of what had happened, but of Who had done the work. If we're too busy wondering about that long lost love what is are we missing that He has for us? If I'm too caught up in my old Cd's, what new artist or word am I missing? God is always trying to speak to us in new and exciting ways, but if we're too wrapped up in the old ways, will we hear Him?

Enjoy the monuments. Take a moment to remember what He's brought you through, but don't dally, you might miss something.