HOPE IS BETTER THAN NOSTALGIA by Nick Davis for Core Christianity
Let me begin with the confession that I am deeply nostalgic. Merriam-Webster defines nostalgic as “longing for or thinking fondly of a past time of condition.”[1] Smells, songs, sceneries, places, people—they all have a way of taking me “way back” (and I’m only 29). The most random and insignificant things do it for me—the smell of diesel fuel reminds me of my dad, flower gardens remind me of my mom. It might be bad for you, but cigarette smoke rarely fails to bring back memories of my grandma’s single-wide trailer, and how as a transplanted English-Canadian, she always called us “love.”
It’s probably the little things that spark such memories for you, too. Such memories bring about feelings of warmth and glow like an old neon sign. We look back with a fondness and longing, maybe a bit of sadness. We ache to go back, even to bring back, the ones we miss so dearly, even just for a moment.
Some of us are not only nostalgic for the individual people and places, but for a way of life, a cultural moment. We remember “the way things were” and we long for it deeply. This corporate nostalgia remembers when you could ride your bike all day, be back for supper, and no one worried where you were. As Merle Haggard sang, we long for a time when “even squares can have a ball.” During such a time drug use, divorce, and violent crime rates were all likely lower. Who wouldn’t want to go back to such a time? Even better, church attendance was also higher. It’s easy to feel like even God’s business is slow these days.
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I certainly don’t bring up such examples of nostalgia to belittle them. As I mentioned, I’m quite sympathetic, and some of my favorite conversations with folks are to hear about “the good ol’ days.” I want to talk about nostalgia, however, because I’ve had to wrestle with my own nostalgic bent. As I’ve wrestled, I’ve come to believe there are two great truths that, as Christians, we need to remember with this powerful emotion.
