F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
The past drives Christians.
In Scripture, past deliverance and grace drives us to present obedience and future hope. We are called to remember what, and who, we once were. We are called to remember what Christ has done for us. We are called to remember the mighty deeds of God. We are called to remember the saints of old who set an example of perseverance and faith. We are called to remember the history of the church.
We are also called to forget the past: Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13-14).
The past drives everyone. It can drive us in positive ways and negative ways.
It’s said the Michael Jordan not making the varsity basketball team as an underclassmen spurred him on to greatness. How many stories have you heard of someone being driven to greatness by the ‘You can’t do it’ comments of the past?
How many men and women have forever been emotionally and romantically ruined because of lost love? Because of the inability to move on? Because of inability to move beyond the hurt and find healing? Cat Stevens said ‘the first cut is the deepest.’ All cuts hurt and take time to heal. Someone has said that there is a presence in what is missing. That’s what we see in the life of Gatsby. He is a haunted man. The presence of what is missing dominates his life, and ultimately destroys his life.
Gatsby is a man who is haunted by the past. He is a man consumed by the past. He is consumed by the idea of a woman he once knew and loved. It drives him to greatness financially, as he strives to amass a fortune that will impress his lost love. It drives him to ruin in every other way.
I wonder how different Gatsby would look in the age of social media. Would he simply anonymously stalk Daisy on Facebook? Would he flaunt his great possessions on Instagram? I wonder if his lust would last if he could see pictures of her young child in an online photo album. I wonder if his lust would have died in an age in which technology takes away the imagination. He wouldn’t have to ask, I wonder what she looks like? I wonder what she’s doing?
I wonder how many men and women are still haunted by past events to the point that those events have a determining impact on their present and future.I wonder how many folks are emotionally and spiritually crippled by memories. I wonder how many men and women hold on to past imaginary ideals instead of living in the now. It’s always easier to love an idea than a person. Ideas don’t argue or contradict the thinker. Ideas aren’t entangled in marriages that must be broken up if we are to achieve our goals.
If nothing else, Nick, Gatsby’s apostolic biographer, warns us that the ghosts of the past can destroy us if we do not exorcise them. Be careful what memories you let dominate you. Those memories may even drive you to greatness is one area or another while causing ultimate spiritual ruin.
You could pick up all sorts of themes in Gatsby. But for me, the inescapable themes involve the crippling effects of idolatry and memory. Exalt something so high, think of it so much, refuse to let it go, and it will end up possessing you, rather than you possessing it. And who knows what it will do with you? Who knows if its hold on you may be crushing?
Yes, I certainly have historical devils that challenge me. I identify with Gatsby’s uneasy posturing. It is ours to daily remember that Christ offers freedom from the ghastly sort of hauntings that the past might plague us with. Trouble being that though we’ve been granted our independence from hell’s heritage, we often wan’t to take hell with us to heaven. (I’m thinking in particular of the stallion and the salamander in C.S. Lewis’ “Great Divorce”.)