Have you ever found yourself longing for the good old days, maybe you recall a child hood memory of a game you won, or party you went to, just some kind of memory pops up, and you find yourself wishing that you could go back in time, thinking that part of your life was somehow better than where you are now?  

That’s something we can all do in our recollections, our minds are full of memories, so it’s not something we can really avoid, but to actually think that our past is better than our present is something we should avoid, and today’s Word cautions against just that: 

Ecc 7:10  Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

A lot of high school sports stars can fall into this hole, they play a big game or win some kind of a championship and that becomes cemented in their minds as the biggest thing they’ll do.  Then they graduate and enter the real world, and life’s realities start piling up on them and they find themselves longing for what Bruce Springsteen calls the “Glory Days”

God’s Word tells us that this nostalgia is not wise though.  And if we think about it, it really isn’t.  Sure it is nice to look fondly on our memories, but that is all they are, just memories.  Paul the Apostle speaks on this as well in his letter to the church in Phillipi when he is talking about his walk as a Christian.  

Php 3:13  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

Php 3:14  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The goal or the end of our lives and the heaven that awaits us is what we should be focusing on, not getting bogged down with memories and sitting back wanting to relive the past.  The present and the future is what count.