Anonymous Asks (243)

“Should Christians reject sentimentality and nostalgia?”

The writer of Ecclesiastes penned these words: “Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” Some Christians take this to mean that all periods of history have their disadvantages and one may as well be born in any given century as in another. Clarke’s Commentary, for example, says, “This is a common saying; and it is as foolish as it is common. There is no weight nor truth in it; but men use it to excuse their crimes, and the folly of their conduct.”

Actually, it’s Clarke’s assertion that has no weight or truth in it, as a moment’s consideration easily demonstrates.

“No Weight Nor Truth.” Say What?

Think about it: all other things being equal, would you rather have lived in Solomon’s court and rhapsodized about the glories of his reign like the visiting Queen of Sheba, or would you prefer to have lived in a cave in famine-stricken Israel under wicked Ahab, with Jezebel looking to have your head? Would you rather have moved freely in Jerusalem and worshiped at a restored temple during the reign of godly Josiah or run for your life from the invading Babylonians a few years later? To pull us into the modern era, would you rather have grown up in a decade where children recited the Lord’s Prayer in public schools or one in which public school teachers propagandize children about the glories of diversity and their right to identify as anything from the opposite sex to a flying rainbow unicorn?

I trust the answers are patently obvious.

Yes, it is true that man always has within him the same propensity for evil from decade to decade. That acknowledged, some eras and cultural moments are indeed transparently preferable to live through than others. To fail to recognize this reality is not an indication of superior morality, it’s an indication you lack discernment.

Nostalgia That Isn’t Useful

Let me suggest Solomon was not saying that it’s wrong to notice that some people in history have had things better than you did, or, for that matter, that some have had things worse. Rather, he’s saying that whinging about it demonstrates one is not thinking with sound judgment:

“Why, oh why, did my grandfather have it so much better than I do?”
”I just don’t think anyone should bring a child into this world the way it is today.”
“Why can’t we get back to the godly family life of the 1950s?”

These are not useful sentiments. Nostalgia of this sort gets us nowhere good. Yes, some periods of history really were morally and culturally preferable to others. Yes, in a fallen world, man always has the same looming potential for evil within him, but he is not always enabled to let loose that evil in the world with the same intensity and pervasive impact. But let’s not allow ourselves to think there is anything intrinsically unfair about being born into a generation less favored, or to start complaining about it.

Thanks and Praise

Let’s face it, we are currently on a precipitous cultural downslope, one so steep it may well terminate in the second coming of Christ. Equally, it may not. We cannot know with any certainty what lies ahead for us, for our children or our loved ones. What we can know with certainty is that our heavenly Father allowed us to be born into our present situation in full knowledge of all the wickedness that our society would try to force on us and all the painful consequences the declining level of morality in the public square might have for those who love him. That is not an appeal for stoicism, but for thanksgiving: the Lord made you for these times, and he will equip you to live through them and bring glory to him if you call on his name. If necessary, he will equip you to die with his praise on your lips, though it may not come to that.

There’s no value in rhapsodizing dreamily about the past, but we may certainly give thanks for it. I’m grateful I grew up when and where I did, with all the major advantages and minor disadvantages that came with it. Those things made me who I am today.

What’s not useful is wishing things could be different, or that we could somehow bring those days back. They won’t be, and we can’t.