Keep to the Present
mmalanga | June 23, 2006The Traveler’s Advisory
Friday 23 June 2006
“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”—Ecclesiastes 7.10 [ESV]
“Don’t long for ‘the good old days,’ for you don’t know whether they were any better than today.”—Ecclesiastes 7.10 [NLT]
Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, warns us that it is unwise to pine with nostalgia for “the good old days.” The New Living Translation [NLT] captures the essence of his warning—“you don’t know whether they were any better than today.”
My parents grew up during the Great Depression (c. 1929-1939). Whenever I asked my dad if he missed “the good old days” his answer was always the same. “No. The only ‘good’ thing about ‘the good old days’ is that they’re gone. Between the good old days and the future, I’ll take the future.”
My father’s comment reminds me of the saying that it is all right to remember the past, but it is not wise to live there. For some people, however, it is likely that the former days were better than the present days. Our bodies have broken down; memories fail. Relationships have come apart. Careers have stalled out. Hopes for brighter days are now overshadowed by the gloominess of a present reality. The Preacher knows life is hard. Yet he warns that it is unwise to be homesick for the good old days. He is not being cruel just realistic.
When it comes to aging there is a difference between getting old and growing old. Everyone will get old, but few people learn the art of growing old—an art learned by practicing the wisdom of God’s word. The past can give us perspective. And that seems to be the Preacher’s point. When we find ourselves trying to escape the unpleasant present by retreating into the dreamy sweetness of the good old days we need to rouse ourselves and look to God for help. The right use of memory will provoke to seek the wisdom of God’s counsel through reading His word, praying for His direction, and asking for the help of other believers. Rather than ask, “What have I done?” the wise person asks, “What must I do?”
In short the wise person lives in the present but looks to the future and puts his or her hope in God. The past is the past. My family will tell you I am a sentimental old goat. I can wax nostalgic just from seeing the rooster on a box of Kellogg’s Corn flakes. But experience has taught me that I have selective memory when it comes to the past. All too often I dress the good old days in better clothing than it wore at the time. The honest truth is when I look back at the past I see it through a soft-focus lens. How about you?
Several years ago a good friend shared the following quote with me from the Pensées written by French philosopher Blaise Pascal. “We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future, and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching. “Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.”
You think about that.
MM
