Should we Keep it Up?

I love history—not necessarily the kind you study in school, though that is ok also. I like peering into recent history. When I was in college, I went to the local library to look at old maps and study the history of the city. When I went to Faith Baptist Church, I put together a lot of material to have a history book, including pictures and every Sunday morning sermon title preached there.

Therefore when I get involved in something, it is only natural that I try to see what has happened before my involvement in the activity. This leads me to be nostalgic about so many things that my kids and wife probably think of my as a dope. But it also means that in the regular course of life, I am commonly asked what happened in the past.

The benefits of nostalgia exist, but there are also detriments. For example, it seems to lead to complacency. Those who are overly nostalgic tend to like consistency and are slower to see the need for changes. So, those minor tweaks are something that we nostalgic people are hesitant to make.

Nevertheless, the biggest issue is not the minor tweaks. Usually we receive enough criticism from those using the better technology to insure that as much as we want to hold on to things, we can not. However, the biggest issue is when we need to completely re-think our paradigm. When something is so bad, but we hold on to it just because it is what we've always done.

This has happened to me a few times, and it is always sad, but it is also necessary. I pray that as I continue to go through my traditional things that I am blessed with people who have the vision to correct me from my continuing of tradition, when the tradition itself needs to be debunked. I don't want to continue with a mistake, just because it's been happening for years.