“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1
This verse has taught me how to deal with nostalgia. I’m not really sure why but I find nostalgia to be somewhat of a crutch for me. We all have our forms of escapism (unfortunately) and mine are sleep and nostalgia. I can get really caught up in reminiscing a good season of my life and begin to hate the present because of it. I’m not sure what drives that but it could be that I hate looking at the future. The future is full of unknowns and scary possibilities. Especially as a Christian who’s trying to be open to the Lord’s leading.
When I was in high school my friend’s dad Tom was a great encouragement to me at a particularly hard time in my life when I (your typical church kid) began to hate church. I remember him pulling me aside after church on Wednesdays and checking in with me. He answered a lot of my stupid questions and was always so kind about answering them.
Tom was diagnosed with throat cancer two years ago. It was unknown how long he would make it and after two years of different treatments, ups and downs, and a lot of pain he is home for his last days. I was reading through the updates his wife sends out and this one in particular stuck out to me:
“I always thought that death just ‘happens’, and probably does for most people. What we are discovering is that sometimes death is a process. While all the physical and medical signs are clearly in front of our eyes that Tom’s journey here is coming to a close, we know that he will be here until the exact moment in time that God chose for Tom, and not one second sooner…….
…… Tom and I were visiting in the middle of the night just before he was placed in the hospital, and it struck me that all along this battle, we have been asking God for a miracle, and that maybe in looking for the ‘big one’ we actually missed all the little ones…. The lives touched, the families reunited because of, the reunion of old friends, the list is I’m sure endless… So tonight we say what we said on day one…. Glory to God. Thank you for walking the road with us. We continue to battle, and victory is on the Horizon….”
People who can face the future especially death, with such surety and trust have always been an amazing source of encouragement to me. I look back on all the talks and time Tom invested in me with extreme gratefulness and while at present my heart hurts for the pain him and his family are in, I can honestly say I am excited for him to meet the God he’s faithfully served his whole life.
Nostalgia isn’t all bad but it can be if you allow it to steal your hope. I’m thankful for all the seasons I’ve had and I’m beginning to look forward to the ones to come even more.
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