Sentimental: Meaning- "based on, showing, or resulting from feelings or emotions rather than reason or thought."--Merriam Webster Dictionary
I took a sentimental journey the other day. Not a planned escape from reality mind you, but an unplanned transportation of my mind to another time and place which was out of my control. Have you ever had something trigger a memory, whether it was a place or some thing which reminded you of not only facts but the emotions of another time?
I try not to allow myself such luxuries. I live in what was once my Grandparent's house. A house in which my mother lived for many years. A house that my brother put much work into and which at every corner of this building I can see some touch of the hands of my family. It might be furniture, carpentry work, a tool, kitchenware of some sort that is familiar. I am surrounded by all these reminders so that I am on guard constantly against allowing myself too much room for sentiment. This is, for all intents and purposes, a living in a museum of my immediate family. This is not what triggered my journey however.
I was looking through an antique shop the other day; I saw a step stool which was exactly like the one my mother kept in the kitchen when I was a kid. It seems strange doesn't it? Yet the moment my eye fell on that mass marketed, rusty piece of furniture, I was transported back to a moment standing on the stool next to the bar in the kitchen. My mom was working that magic she always did in the kitchen, making something out of almost nothing, all the while making it so delicious as to be unforgettable. It was almost as if I had been moved physically back in time.
What is my point? Consider the power of sentiment. In the amber of memory, things seem a little sweeter than they actually were, the complexity and anxiety are stripped away. Precious little of the real is left, like a glass Christmas ornament. It gives the appearance of what it represents, but little else. Sentiment is the smell of the baking bread without tasting it.
When so much of life is less than amusing, sentiment is a refreshing respite from all the stress and acrimony of the here and now. The problem then, is to turn away from dreamy remembrance and engage in the here and now with vigor. Jesus said "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. ..." (cf. Luke 9:62). There little place for getting weepy about what has been in the past when we have responsibilities today. Paul's comment is memorable for its cold dispatch of yesterday ("Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those which are before..." cf. Phil. 3:13). This means the good and the bad.
While it is not the intention of this writing to proclaim anathema on family albums every where, we must keep in mind that all that has come before has passed, all that lies before is eternity. How we spend this time now will be the basis of our reward or loss when we stand before our Lord. Sentiment comes at a cost, it is that simple. We shouldn't mortgage our future, and the eternal work we must do, in order to engage in too much sentiment today. How many storage buildings do we need to fill with "memorabilia" before it is too much? In the same way, how much of our lives to we surrender to impracticality and even disobedience because of tradition? Paul reminds us of the priority of our lives "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2Co 5:17) and again in Romans "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."(Rom 13:11). Our lives are too precious to live in "remember when" city. We have work to do and precious little time to do it. Take a brief break, be encouraged by the past but then take up your cross and move on.
