Looking back can be intoxicating. Recalling the days of youth, of achievement, of "better times" can make you drowsy in the present and sluggish for the things of God. Why else would the Preacher warn us not to say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions." (Ecc. 7.10) There is a difference between thankfulness and nostalgia. Thankfulness assigns value to the things provided by God and urges us forward in the things that are yet to be. Nostalgia lingers over things past and retreats from the challenges ahead.
Even as "each day has enough trouble of its own," (Mt. 6.34) so "Now is the the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6.2). There is an unending urgency in the call of God upon our lives that is muted by complacency. A friend of mine often concludes our times together with the words, "Onward and upwards!" The important thing to God is not the past, nor even the present, but rather the next thing that brings us further along in our faith.
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