Nostalgia

I heard a few Sugar Ray songs the other day for the first time in awhile and I felt a little nostalgic. Depending on which decade you grew up in, you probably have a handful of songs particular to that era that bring back memories from your childhood or teenage years (good or bad, right?). Nostalgia is a powerful thing and, at least for me, it tends to manifest itself most often while listening to music. I say that it’s powerful for at least a few reasons. First, it can skew reality. It can often make the past seem better than it actually was. Second, it can cause you to want to “re-live” an experience, good or bad. It can cause you to re-think your life and question how you ended up where you are currently. Third, in relation to 1 and 2, it has the potential to bring about either contentment or discontentment. I will say historically, I have viewed nostalgia as being an overall “negative” thing. However, recently I have found myself re-thinking that notion. Maybe nostalgia has the potential to be beneficial for a person, especially the Christian? I actually think nostalgia is “neutral,” much like money and the internet. I could be wrong (I’m no expert), so here are just a few of my thoughts on nostalgia.

When Can Nostalgia be Harmful?

I will answer this question with my own life experiences, to start. I went through a very tumultuous season of life about 5 years ago. Much of the tumult in my life was due to my own poor decisions, but it was still an awful season nonetheless. I medicated myself through substance abuse in order to ease my discomfort during this season. I wanted to escape reality. I kept this very secretive for the most part. It was my own way of just dealing with things. Many of these past memories are burned in my mind, though by God’s grace, some of them no longer linger. It’s not super-often anymore, but I would say at least a few times a year, I will have moments of nostalgia that will trigger these past memories and paint them as “pleasant,” “enjoyable,” “the good ‘ole days,” etc. It can be tempting in the moment to want to re-create or try to relive those experiences. In this case, nostalgia is a bad deal and I have seen it cause many, especially those with past addictions, to struggle.

In a funny way, Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite comes to mind when I think about this. If you don’t know who or what either of those things are, you haven’t lived! I’m kidding. Uncle Rico is a very stupid character from a very stupid (albeit it one of my favorite) movie, Napoleon Dynamite. “If coach would have put me in the 4th quarter, everything would be different. We would have went to state. I would have gone pro. Right now, I’d be soaking it up in a hot tub, with my soulmate.” Coming from a middle-aged guy who lived in a van and sold cheap tupperware! Uncle Rico was stuck in the past. He was discontent with his current life. Nostalgia can tend to do this. It can paralyze us if we perceive things from the past to be better than they are now, even if they were actually worse than they currently are. Maybe your life was “better” back then, but nostalgia tends to skew reality and paint the past to be better than it actually was, so your perception probably isn’t accurate. When I’m overcome with those feelings, I just remind myself of the many hard days that were present in the “good ‘ole days.” I pray, but I also give myself a bit of a reality check. Nostalgia is an overcoming feeling, which brings to mind 2 Peter 2:19-22:

“19 For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘ The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” 

Though you can also be overcome by the Holy Spirit, which enslaves you to righteousness! With that, let’s think about the profitable effects of nostalgia.

When Can Nostalgia be Good?

I think besides looking ahead to God’s future promises, looking back on what he has already done can stir us up with joy in our salvation and thanksgiving for God’s goodness. Israel was to remember and tell their children about how God delivered them from Egypt (Exodus 13:3-10). They would hold a feast to remember this through the generations. I know for me, if I hear a worship song from my early days as a new Christian, I feel nostalgic and it stirs me up. Nostalgia isn’t the Holy Spirit (though it can be used by Him), but if it stirs me up in my faith and helps me to see how God has kept me and been good to me, it’s a good thing! I think the longer a person has been a Christian, there is a greater number of good memories particularly of God’s favor on our lives to be nostalgic over. Every second of every day, there is an increasing amount of memories of God’s blessing and favor in my life piling up in a storehouse. Hearing an old worship song I haven’t heard since my first couple years as a Christian makes me think, “Wow, I’m still going. I’m still in the race. God you’re good for keeping me and preserving me. You’re faithful.” I have seen many people come and go over the years, so I am always blown away that I’m still at it. And I have no idea why. Somehow, day in and day out I just keep going. He perseveres me over and over. He has new mercies for me everyday.

“Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” – Hosea 6:3