In transit yesterday, reading Spiritual Seasons by Mark Buchanan, one of the ideas I came across was that the pastor is an occupational enemy of nostalgia.
Remembering past blessings is not only okay, it is absolutely imperative for spiritual health and vitality.
Problems emerge though when ‘our instinct for heaven’ finds itself ‘rummaging in the storage closet, hoping that our heart’s true desire is in there somewhere, hidden amid a clutter of keepsakes and accumulated debris.’
The phrase ‘Nostalgia is expectancy in reverse’ has been drifting around my mind over the last 24 hours and it has helped clarify the difference between: encouraging folk to maintain a thoughtfully cultivated collection of memories, which produce current thankfulness and momentum to enter future seasons with expectation; and guarding against the tendency to languish in those memories as if they were the best that could be, indulging in the futile thought that true fulfillment is now only attainable by a return to that past.
Jesus was encouraged by the memory of the relationship which he, the Father, and the Spirit shared before the initial second marked the commencement of measured time, yet that recall did not evoke a desire for creation to exist no more, rather it was a means by which he was strengthened in fulfilling the work by which God’s people have come to share in the fellowship and love expressed by the divine nature.
A church should never think that its best days are behind it, no matter what those days entailed.
Our best day is ahead, and our previous experiences are encouragements toward that destination.
The past is a necessary and helpful place to visit, but it is not destination; rather it is a roadhouse, a comfort stop, as we move toward our destiny.
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