The Good Old Days

There’s something about the “good old days” that is comforting. Perhaps it's just because those days connect you with your earliest memories of life. Or maybe those days represent your prime and your glory days. Either way, it makes sense that the “good old days” often thought about with favor.

After all, every moment of our past has served as a single brick to build the lives we all live today, so they’re important. Looking back on the past allows us to learn from the successes and failures of others. Romans 15:4, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”

But it’s important not look too much into the past or keep your mind there for too long. You can easily get trapped there--whether it’s a traumatic experience, a life of sin and selfishness, or simply forgetting to see what’s in front of you now. Paul realized that about himself, as he said in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

 It’s been said there are four main reasons that are worth diverting some of our present day focus toward our past.
1) To see how far you’ve come. Sometimes seeing any amounts of progress can encourage us to keep fighting the good fight. 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7 describes how their faithfulness through their trials has helped others stay faithful.
2. Helps us to be more empathetic towards people experiencing their own setbacks. Just as Jesus challenged those willing to stone the woman caught in adultery by asking, “He who is without sin should throw the first stone” (John 8:7). That would’ve been humbling.
3. Our memories are our source of Thanksgiving. Ephesians 1:16, “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Or 1 Thessalonians 1:3, “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, [and] your labor prompted by love….”
4. To remind yourself of your mission. There are countless distractions on the high road to heaven, and if we’re not careful, we can be lured in the trap of worry instead of trust. Matthew 13:22, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

Hopefully we can appreciate our past without getting stuck in it so that we can’t live for the future. The Jews got hung up on their past and it kept many of them from seeing Jesus as the Messiah, the promised one of God. Our love of our past never needs to blind us from seeing God’s future.