Happy New Year! Welcome to 2011! I am excited for what God is doing and has yet to do among us. As we move into this new year and into the new things God is doing, there is a great caution I must share with you all.
Nostalgia is the nemesis of the new. So long as we look at the past as being “the glory days” or “the golden days” of the church, we will not embrace what God desires to reveal and do both today and tomorrow. Nostalgia is defined as a “bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.” (American Heritage Dictionary) The word is derived from two Greek words “nostos,” which means “returning home” and “algos,” meaning “pain” or “ache.” So, we use it today to mean an ache or pain for something of the past that gives us that “home” feeling. The problem for the Christian is that “home” is not found in the past, but in the future. And while “nemesis” refers to a Greek god of retribution and vengeance, it has come to also be defined as, “the inescapable or implacable agent of someone's or something's downfall.” (New Oxford American Dictionary) What I am saying then is that nostalgia makes it impossible to embrace and enter the new.
An example from the Israelites can be found in Ezra 3:11-13. The foundation for the new temple had been laid after they returned from Babylon and many cheered about the foundation, but many also wept who had seen the temple Solomon had built. Those who wept compared the size of the new foundation with the old temple. They were looking at the external situation of the present and longing for the past. But, how did God see things? Haggai 2:1-8 shows that God knew how people saw the new temple being built and compared it to the old one. However, of the new temple He said: “The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former….” (v.8)
If we really want this new year to be filled with new things from God, then we have to remove nostalgia from our thoughts and emotions. We have to let go of the past and believe that God has a “future and a hope” for us. (Jeremiah 29:11) While we may learn principles and lessons from the past, they do not always apply directly to the present or future. Would you go to a doctor who believes that the glory days of medicine were 200 years ago and acts accordingly? Would you rather worship to Gregorian Chants on Sunday morning?
Let’s enter the new year like it’s new. Let’s embrace the future without the baggage of trying to relive the past. Let’s find that the latter glory is really greater than the former.
Bless you all,
Pastor Merril
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