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| The good old days - playing with guitarist extraordinaire Jeff Jaskowiak (thanks Julie!) |
One thing that can destroy community and fill it
with guilt and condemnation is misrepresenting the past by inflating it. Over
the years I have met Christians who, rather than serving and ministering with
God’s love and power in the now, critique the church by pointing to the past as
glory days that need to be recreated. The further one gets from those
"good old days," the better they look.
But truthfully, the "good old days"
had their problems too. 19th-century Dutch historian Johan Huizinga said “there
is not a more dangerous tendency in history than that of representing the past
as if it were a rational whole and dictated by clearly defined interest.”[1]
In the glorification of the past the past gets
distorted. The person who glorifies their past lives an illusory life rooted in
falsehood.
As for me, I find myself rarely (if ever)
wanting to go back to the past. It's true that I have good memories. I
sometimes think of Linda and I, living in East Lansing, with our two little
boys. We did not have a lot of money (that was hard). We did have one another
(that was good). Sometimes I think of those days, but I never want to go back
and do them again. My desire is not to recapitulate the past.
My heart aligns strongly with the apostle Paul's
view, which is: one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I
press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has
called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.[2] (Philippians 3:13-14)
Moving forward and finishing
well - that's what I am praying for. Pressing forward, not backward. With this
viewpoint I am freed from the tyranny of an often-distorted past and released
to love God and move with His Spirit now, today. The Word does
not say "Yesterday was the day that the Lord had
made," but...
"This, today, is
the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"
