When things become difficult, it's always tempting to look back to the "good old days".
Sometimes, like Lot's wife, we look back in regret. We compare the genuinely good things we've lost - the relationships, the comforts, the circumstances - with what we have now. It's easy then to become bitter, or to live mentally and emotionally in the past instead of the present. Unwilling to let go of what has gone, we resist moving forwards into the future. It's as if we become rigid and immobilised, a "pillar of salt".
At other times we become nostalgic for a past that looks far better in hindsight than it really was at the time. Out in the desert and feeling hungry, the people of Israel forgot the hardships they had endured as slaves in Egypt. They began to grumble and longed for the supposedly good things they had left behind - trivial things like leeks and onions.
Sometimes, like Lot's wife, we look back in regret. We compare the genuinely good things we've lost - the relationships, the comforts, the circumstances - with what we have now. It's easy then to become bitter, or to live mentally and emotionally in the past instead of the present. Unwilling to let go of what has gone, we resist moving forwards into the future. It's as if we become rigid and immobilised, a "pillar of salt".
At other times we become nostalgic for a past that looks far better in hindsight than it really was at the time. Out in the desert and feeling hungry, the people of Israel forgot the hardships they had endured as slaves in Egypt. They began to grumble and longed for the supposedly good things they had left behind - trivial things like leeks and onions.
Regret and nostalgia are seldom helpful. They prevent us from dealing with the reality in which we now live, and keep us from having hope for the future. Neither Lot's wife nor the people of Israel benefited from their backward-looking attitude. It only left them doubting God's faithfulness.
Yet the Bible does tell us to "remember". We're told to remember what God has done and the way that he has provided for us in the past. But rather than mourning for what we have lost, we are called to be thankful for the blessings we have received. Remembering God's goodness to us in the past is a means of reminding us to live in hope that he will continue to provide what we need in the future.
We're also told to remember the way that God has been with us through difficult times. Instead of becoming nostalgic, we can live in the reality of the present, knowing that the same God is still with us now and will continue to be with us forever. Remembering will give us the strength to endure.
