“Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.” Ecclesiastes 7:10

Just The Facts, Ma’am, Part 2

Yesterday we looked at how faulty our memories can be, and all the more so as time passes. We tend to recall with fondness certain events, and forget the difficulties attached to them. Or, in some cases, we remember an event as so much worse than it seemed at the time. We imagine problems and emotions that simply were not present at the actual event. (I’m not referring to repressed memories that suddenly spring to our minds—those things may indeed have been real, although even these might be only partially accurate.)

This Scripture asks us to consider the “why” of this behavior. Why do we tend to look back so fondly on the olden days? Yesterday we looked at this from a human or carnal viewpoint. Today, let’s look at spiritual viewpoints.

Perhaps it is unwise to think yesterday was better than today because it smacks of discontent with our current place and circumstances. “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Timothy 6:8). “Be content with such things as you have” (Hebrews 13:5). Do we not know that our circumstances are God-ordained to teach, lead, and draw us to Himself (Acts 17:26-27)? To think that another time and place would have suited us better is to tell God He doesn’t know what He’s doing.

Perhaps it is unwise to think yesterday was better than today because when we look back at yesterday, we “turn back from the plow.” “But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’” (Luke 9:62). This displeases God because once He has shown us the way for our lives, we are expected to be faithful on that particular path with that particular work, until He leads us to a new path. We let Him be God, and we tell ourselves that we are not God.

When we look back, we generally cannot also look ahead. (God put our eyes only on one side of our head for a reason!) If He calls us to go forward when our eyes are turned back, then we will have to walk backwards to go with Him, stumbling, tripping, and falling. If our thoughts stay in the past, we’ll expect our future to look just like it. “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it” (Isaiah 43:19a)?

To always look back is to show a lack of trust in His ability to take us through the unknown future. God was angry with His people when they remembered the bondage of Egypt as “the good ol’ days.” Current hardships can blind our eyes to truth, can’t it? “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver* springs to mind.

God has surely delivered us from things we don’t even remember, and perhaps never even knew we were delivered from them. He often works in secret (Psalm 139:15), and we only know in part (1 Corinthians 13:9). We can’t see, and we don’t know, all that He’s doing.

The best thing we can do is trust Him with today and tomorrow.

God, sometimes trusting You seems complicated and difficult, but Your Word declares that You are trustworthy. Help us to settle on that for our lives. Amen.

*Denver, John. “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Poems, Prayers and Promises. RCA. April 1971.