The Problem with Looking Back

Looking back can be dangerous. Church’s can idealize the past to the neglect of the present. Parents can reminisce about how easy things were back when the kids were younger, forgetting that trouble is not bound by time.

It’s easy to idealize the past because we live in the present so we don’t have to deal with the troubles that haunted us back then. Parents forget that even the cutest newborn demands to be fed every couple of hours, not to mention that the end result of feeding a child is changing their diaper. Church’s forget that no season has ever been without it’s troubles.

Solomon talks about this tendency to look back with nostalgia on days gone by. “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10) Rather than looking back on “better days” perhaps wisdom is to enjoy each and everyday that God has given us in this life under the sun.