The Gift of Remembering
Nostalgia is pretty popular on social media these days. One example is the X account RetroNewsNow, which posts commercials, shows, songs, toys and sports clips from past decades on virtually any topic. While these accounts are fun and funny and “take you back,” our tendency for nostalgia reflects something deeper about who God made us to be. We are to remember, but it also matters how we remember.
The Old Testament is full of calls to “remember.” The Psalms repeatedly teach God’s people to remember the deeds of the Lord and to recall His wondrous works. The prophets remind Israel of its disobedient past and God’s deliverance anyway. Exodus says, “Remember the Sabbath,” and Moses warned against forgetting God’s laws. Just about every book in the Old Testament called the Lord’s people to “remember” as a way of being faithful. In fact, as an old history-buff friend of mine often said, the entire Old Testament could be summed up in the word “remember.”
In the New Testament, Jesus instructed His disciples to take communion “in remembrance of me,” never forgetting His faithfulness to follow His divine destiny to die and rise in glory, defeating sin and the grave. And when we remember, we reflect God, who not only took on flesh and dwelt amongst us, but who also promises to remember. Throughout Scripture, God assures His people that He will remember His covenant with them.
One reason we have to be reminded to remember is that we can struggle to remember. As The New England Primer of 1690 famously taught, “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” One of the results is that we tend to forget what God has promised and how He has been faithful to us in the past.
When it comes to remembering, there are two tendencies humans have because of the fall. First is the tendency to have selective memory of only those things we wish to remember. The popularity of online nostalgia accounts may be due to how we think about the present. We are sentimental and long for the positive realities of the past, rarely remembering those things that have always plagued the human condition.
Second, we are also susceptible, philosophically speaking, of constantly repudiating the past as unenlightened. Building on the theory of German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, the post-modern concept of “History” is not the story of one thing happening after the other, but the law of ceaseless progress. “Historicism,” as it is often called, is the record of inevitable human advancement from age to age. Why remember the past in any serious or enduring way if it’s out of step with the progressive march of history toward better days?
Still, there is a reason that nostalgic images and videos arouse something in us. In the end, what we do with memory will have real consequences not just for individuals but for our civilization. Should the past be rejected or retrieved? If retrieved, then how? From the French Revolution’s attempt at a post-Christian calendar to Fascist Italy’s adoption of “Anno 1” (Year One) in 1922, there are very real and serious implications to how the past is considered and judged, or more to the point, what we attempt to forget about the past.
The call “to remember” is a call to more than mere nostalgia. It is a call to action. We are to remember truths, heroes, triumphs and tragedies that inspire action in this cultural moment. As the author of Hebrews commanded, we are to remember those who spoke God’s Word and then imitate their ways (Hebrews 13:7).
Most of all, we are to remember God and all that He has done. To remember is not just a mental activity. It is a way to imagine our Creator—One who remembers His promises and is sure to fulfill them.
Thus, the Apostle John’s words in Revelation apply to people and families and nations: remember, repent and return. We need to remember God's faithfulness, repent of our sins and return to His ways. This is how we can always remember His promise to forgive and to restore.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Lauracathleen
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
