Every now and then, a song will sneak up on you.
I was thinking about that old Judds song, “Grandpa,” and the line about the good old days. At first, it is easy to think the song is talking about old cars, dirt roads, front porches, and simpler times.
Now, I will admit, I do miss some old cars and dirt roads.
But when I went back and listened closer, that song was not really walking through a museum of old things. It was reaching for something deeper.
Values.
That is the word that kept coming back to me.
Not nostalgia just for the sake of nostalgia. Not pretending the past was perfect. It was not. Some of the past had dust on it for a reason, and some of it needed to stay buried.
But not all of it.
Somewhere along the way, I think we left some good things lying on the barn floor.
Faithfulness.
Keeping your word.
Family duty.
Neighbor helping neighbor.
Telling the truth even when it costs you.
Doing what is right when nobody is standing there with a clipboard.
Learning how to disagree without turning it into a war.
Those things are not old because they are outdated. They are old because they have been tested.
There is a difference.
I got to thinking about this while looking at an image of an older man in bib overalls, kneeling down in an old barn, picking up a dusty Bible from the floor. Light was coming through the cracks in the boards. Dust was hanging in the air. There was no shouting, no grand speech, no big production.
Just a man bending down to pick up what should never have been left there.
That image said plenty.
Sometimes we do not lose things all at once. Sometimes we set them down for just a minute. Then life gets busy. The world gets loud. Something shiny catches our eye. Somebody starts hollering from the other side of the fence. Before long, what mattered gets covered over.
Not gone.
Just neglected.
That is important.
Because if something is gone, all you can do is mourn it.
But if something is neglected, you can still pick it back up.
Now, I am not saying we need to drag the whole past back into the kitchen. Wisdom knows better than that. I may churn a little butter now and then, but I use pasteurized heavy cream. I worked in healthcare too long to romanticize microorganisms. Nostalgia does not kill bacteria.
So no, this is not all-or-nothing.
We do not have to choose between old ways and common sense.
Maybe we need to slow down just a wee bit, partner.
Keep what is worth carrying.
Leave behind what needs leaving.
Use your head.
Use your hands.
Use your heart.
That may be where the course correction begins.
Not with yelling.
Not with another online argument.
Not with pretending yesterday was spotless.
Maybe it begins when we bend down and pick up the values we left on the barn floor.
Open the Bible again.
Keep your word again.
Call your people again.
Help your neighbor again.
Tell the truth again.
Sit at the table again.
Pray like God is God again.
That man in the barn knows something too.
He knows the end of the trail is coming.
Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not for ten or twenty years. But there are fewer days ahead than there are behind, and a man starts asking different questions when he realizes that.
Not, “Did I win enough arguments?”
Not, “Did I have the nicest things?”
Not, “Did everybody agree with me?”
The questions get quieter than that.
Did I teach enough?
Did I love enough?
Was I neighborly enough?
Did I keep my word?
Did I show my family what faith looked like when nobody was putting on a show?
Did I leave anything worth picking up?
Those are not small questions. Those are the kinds that walk into the room late in life, pull up a chair, and do not leave just because the television is on.
Maybe that is why he is bending down.
Not because the Bible is heavy.
Because the moment is.
He is not just picking up a book.
He is picking up responsibility, memory, faith, and maybe a little regret. But he is also picking up hope, because if a thing can still be lifted, it can still be carried.
And maybe that is the mercy in it.
As long as we are still here, we can still bend down.
The good old days may not be a place we can return to, but the values we thought lived there may still be waiting on us.
Right there in the dust.
Right where we left them.
Waiting for somebody humble enough to bend down, brush them off, and carry them forward.
If this piece gave you something to think about, I invite you to pick up your Bible and visit a local Church of Christ.
If you are in the Gladewater, Texas, area, come visit us at:
North Loop Church of Christ
1000 North Loop 485
Gladewater, Texas 75647