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Old School Christmas hmullan Dec 18 : 13:18
The season is upon us now and, as is our custom around this time of year, Christmas music floats like snowflakes around the house.  The season is upon us now and, as is our custom around this time of year, Christmas music floats like snowflakes around the house. Like old friends visiting for the holidays we welcome Ella and her red-nosed reindeer, Nat singing by an open fire, and of course good old Bing reminiscing about white Christmas’ he used to know. This year I managed to get my hands on a Bing Crosby Christmas album my family and I have never heard. While listening to it my wife commented on how old it sounded. I let it slide the first time, but when she repeated this, with emphasis on the old, I said, trying to subdue my snippiness, “So is Christmas hon. Besides, all those people you complain about singing out of key listen to contemporary music.” This got me thinking about a trend I notice concerning the old and the new.
The trend leans toward the acceptance of new things and a rejection of the old. Old school Christian values are deemed dated while being replaced by a “progressive,” and “new age” religion and way of thought. Old people are seen as out of touch while the young are esteemed and given more weight than is warranted.
Consider how the Chemical Recovery Fellowship has, as a centerpiece, traditions that shape our worldview and ideas about recovery. Traditions are values and customs that have stood the test of time. By definition they have age to them and as a result can be trusted more readily than a new idea unrefined by the fire of experience. When we don’t recognize the value, and give due respect to, things and people who have “time under their belt,” we inadvertently play into the world’s hands and undermine a source of strength in our recovery. Jesus declared that he did not come to abolish the old testament teachings, but rather to fulfill them with their “new” and fuller meaning. There is a place for the new, but we must look to history, learn from the old and not disrespect the things, or people, of the past as they hold wisdom we need embrace, cherish and live by. Older movies, music, books and people often hold a quality and sagacity lacking in the young and new. Give me an old fashioned Christmas with old friends, old music, and an old Charles Dickens book any day. |
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