This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

When did we stop inviting the ancient to the head of the table?

When did we begin investing our hope in all things new?

We strain our eyes toward the future to catch a glimpse of what is “next” and “just released”—a new voice, a new star, a new opportunity, a new idea. What within us finds the new so very addictive?

Yes (of course) new reinventing itself each day is consumerism’s bread and butter—new and improved gadgets and methods with new and improved features and applications that invite us to justify the dumping of what caught our imagination in the last year, or month, or minute. We do this with iphones and big screens and the earth moans with the weight of our waste. We do this with people and old wisdom and, I believe, God weeps.

May God forgive us for underestimating the beautiful old.

May God forgive us for idolizing the flighty new.

No (in case you are wondering) I am neither anti-new nor anti-technology. I simply hear something in Jeremiah 6:16 that causes me to pause and ask myself if I honor the ancient in a way that honors the Ancient One. In a time of political, economic, social, and spiritual crisis, the Lord counseled His people to ask not for the trendy, but for the timeless: “Ask for the ancient paths.”

“What?!” our age would have protested. “Obviously, God, we need a new path to take, a new plan to implement, a new person to follow.” “No,” God would have replied, “You need to ask for the ancient. The ancient paths will bring rest to your souls.” (Surely nothing new under the tree this Christmas could pull off such a miracle.)

Our minds seem ever-forward-leaning. Our souls have lost their resting place. For our mental and spiritual health, we must learn to lean backwards toward the ancient. For in our very depths, beneath our eyes’ exhausting search for all things shiny, we hunger for ancient insight, timeless truth, and words weighty enough to still our restless souls.

Something unmistakably comforting is present when old-word-wisdom is uttered. Something illogically moving occurs when the soft, wrinkled hand of an elder lovingly touches us. Old words and old lives: The old delivers us from the illusion of immortality. The old awakens us from the suffocating slumber of self-centeredness. The old invites us to reach beyond our short-sighted senses and link arms with history.

This holiday season, let us ask for something ancient from God.

This holiday season, let us honor the elders in our land.

This holiday season, let us rediscover rest for our souls.