{Manchester, UK}Our culture has a permeating sense of sadness. It’s in our music, it’s in our film, and it has infiltrated even the upper levels of society: the big-name designers have gone “back to black” in the words of Amy Winehouse. We even have a nickname for the people who express their despondency outright: emo.
The fact is we are new people, new creations in an old world, and we have to understand where this world, His world, and His plan have come from to get a grip on where we’re going, where we fit into His plan, and where we are now. We have to learn to appreciate the significance of Christ’s sacrifice, and evaluate the rest of history, as well as our present and future, by that. Without our past, without history and tradition, we are free floating in a chain of aimless events. What alternative reaction could there be to such a hopeless outlook? “If you detach tomorrow’s dreams of peace, order, and joy from yesterday’s history, you can only expect disappointment and sadness.” (Chris Thomas) Only the past will enable us to enjoy the prospect of our future.
Scripture clearly does not want us to run from where He began:
“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp stand out of its place – unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4-5)
When we forget our first love, and therefore abandon our past, we disregard the future that our Father has for us. The passage in Revelation is not addressing a specific person, either, it is speaking to a community, a church to be specific; our past as the body of Christ even before we, as individuals, became involved, has more to do with our future than good memories: it has to shape where we are headed.
The fact is we are new people, new creations in an old world, and we have to understand where this world, His world, and His plan have come from to get a grip on where we’re going, where we fit into His plan, and where we are now. We have to learn to appreciate the significance of Christ’s sacrifice, and evaluate the rest of history, as well as our present and future, by that. Without our past, without history and tradition, we are free floating in a chain of aimless events. What alternative reaction could there be to such a hopeless outlook? “If you detach tomorrow’s dreams of peace, order, and joy from yesterday’s history, you can only expect disappointment and sadness.” (Chris Thomas) Only the past will enable us to enjoy the prospect of our future.
Scripture clearly does not want us to run from where He began:
“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp stand out of its place – unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4-5)
When we forget our first love, and therefore abandon our past, we disregard the future that our Father has for us. The passage in Revelation is not addressing a specific person, either, it is speaking to a community, a church to be specific; our past as the body of Christ even before we, as individuals, became involved, has more to do with our future than good memories: it has to shape where we are headed.
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