WEDNESDAY'S WORD - NOSTALGIA - Sadell Bradley 1/27/2021

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD NOSTALGIA 1/27/2021 "There is no word for feeling nostalgic about the future, but that's what a parent's tears often are, a nostalgia for something that has not yet occurred. They are the pain of hope, the helplessness of hope, and finally, the surrender to hope." - Michael Ian Black- American Comedian If I had to choose a lyric, to sum up, much of what we've experienced lately, it would be from the Billy Joel song, "Keeping the Faith." He wrote, "The good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems." I have experienced the lure of false nostalgia— the tendency to view situations and people from years-gone-by only from a positive perspective—eliminating ANY trace of fault or negativity that was clearly present. The rose-colored glasses through which we view yesteryear are at times simply fogging up the truth. NOSTALGIA is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a place with personal or happy associations. The word nostalgia derives from the Greek nostos 'return home' and algos 'pain.' It actually means homesickness. Right now, most Americans wish for a time prior to 2020 when things were 'normal' and hope to return to a way of life that is probably not coming back. This is a 'new normal' in almost every sense. We're also grappling with and arguing over differing ideas of what makes our country great. Some folks' good old days are other folks' trauma. One person is fearful and apprehensive about a future that another is excited to see come to fruition. Some of our nostalgia is false...or at least incomplete as we engage it in community. It will take deeper conversations filled with empathy for us to get that. NOSTALGIA IS A SEDUCTIVE LIAR. - GEORGE BALL In Exodus 16, the Children of Israel began to complain to their leaders, Moses and Aaron, about the hardship of the wilderness. They had just recently been delivered by the LORD's mighty hand from slavery to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. In Exodus 16:3, false nostalgia took over. They ceased to be grateful and began to murmur and grumble. “If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” Numbers 11:5 says, "We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic." It's hard to believe that they were crying to return to the brutality and hardship of 400 years of enslavement for so little. That wilderness, that situation they hated was the launching pad for their freedom! How many of us have been stuck mentally and emotionally in a past situation? We know it was not good for us then, and it's not good for us now—but we long for it, or for something similar. All the while we are losing sight of the much better situation that God has allowed us to enjoy in His gift of the PRESENT. NOSTALGIC HOPE "There is no word for being nostalgic for the future," the quote above states. We can only be nostalgic for what we've experienced before. Thank the LORD we can envision things through the eye of faith and be blessed to see our faith become substance. I am a Kingdom citizen who believes that the LORD Jesus Christ rules the Universe and all governments. His Church of Kingdom ambassadors is to extend His loving rule in the earth. So I'm not a big US politics person, nor do I believe there is really a 'Christian' party in our democratic republic. I must, however, celebrate that for the first time in our nation's history, a woman has been elected to the Vice Presidency, shattering that glass ceiling. The fact that Vice President Kamala Harris is a woman of color and a graduate of an HBCU—Historically Black College or University (Howard University) is something that women around the world honored this week by wearing Chucks (Converse Chuck Taylor Sneakers) and pearls. Leadership for women is never easy—inside nor outside of the Church. I am committed to continuing to pray as Scripture instructs us in 1 Tim. 2:1-2, for President Biden and our new leaders for the best of our historic and future nostalgia to be revealed in our times. I hope you will do the same.