The Parchment 6-Aug-00: Longing for Simpler Times

Like most everybody else, Sue and I believed when the children were gone and we were alone that things would slow down. They didn’t! We all seem to long for the days when things were not so hectic. "Oh, if we could just return to the times when things were simple! Ah, they were the good old days." Were they? When were the good old simple days, anyway?

Men have always longed for the "good old days" when things were simpler. While wandering in the wilderness, the Hebrews opined for the "flesh pots" of Egypt (Exod. 16:3). Compared to what they were enduring, they believed that the days of slavery were the good old days. Moreover, Job, during his trials, cried out, "Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God watched over me" (Job 29:2). I’m sure he could have made a strong case for that request. And when the temple was rebuilt and rededicated, the old men lamented for the splendor of the first temple (Ezra 3:12; Hag. 2:3). God’s presence wasn’t enough; they wanted magnificence. Looking back with longing says more about us than it does about the times in which we live. Solomon asks in Eccl. 7:10, "Why were the former days better than these? For you do not inquire wisely concerning this."

Spending our time longing for the simple "good old days" robs us of the ability to do what we can today. It makes us cynics. Today is all we have, and we must do the best with what we have. "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil," says Eph. 5:16. This verse means to buy up the opportunities available today. That is, take every advantage of now, because you can never recall former days. They were not as great as you remember them to be anyway.

I get melancholy watching Andy and Barney sitting on the front porch of Andy’s Mayberry home on Sunday afternoon. Their greatest care was whether to go to Wally’s filling station and buy a bottle of pop or to take a nap. The truth is that this was during the Vietnam war. I was, in fact, dealing with the reality of dying in the jungles of Southeast Asia. A decade before this, my uncles were participating in the so-called Korean Police Action facing an onslaught of Chinese soldiers. When they long for yesteryear, they have forgotten the fears and tears of those "good old days." My father, a Marine, fought the Japanese in the Pacific. If he were alive, he would never dream of returning to those days in Guam or Iwo Jima. Also, my granddad’s generation died in the "great war" to end all wars. Those were some horrendous times.

Today there is evil and there is crime, but there were crime, prostitution, drugs, and liquor during the days of people like Al Capone or Bonnie and Clyde. Do you long for these days? Or do you yearn for the times of the great dust bowl? Are you nostalgic for the times prior to Social Security or Medicare? Do you yearn for the times when the "smoke-filled rooms" controlled political parties and elections? Perhaps it’s the years of cholera, polio, and the flu epidemic that you dream of reliving.

The more time I spend reading about heaven from the pages of Scripture, the more I learn that the times when things were simple exist only in our selective memory. They are illusions that appear in the rear view mirrors of the complicated now. As each generation ages, it looks back to a perceived simpler time when things were not so complex and life was not so demanding. However, our backward glances suffer from a perpetual illness. Backward glances "see" from the bright light of glowing memories. Those memories commonly focus only on the good experiences, often exaggerated and sometimes fictitious, as we refuse to recall "bad" realities.

As history continues to be made, as civilization expands, as one age fades and another emerges, human existence becomes increasingly complex. As peoples become nations and nations become a global community; as societies develop and fragment; human existence becomes increasingly complex. My granddad died in 1959; I was not quite 12. Dwight Eisenhower was President. Since his death there have been eight more presidents. Men have walked on the moon. My granddad never had a telephone in his house, yet today children are talking on cell phones at the mall (he never saw a mall, either). Computers, 747s, and AIDS were never part of his vocabulary. I doubt that he, if given a chance, could begin to take in and feel comfortable with all the changes and innovations since 1959.

Only one eternal constant exists in our complex world: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever," (Heb. 13:8). Because of Him, we have stability in this complex and changing world. Because of Him, we can find peace and tranquility without longing for, or being transported to, some elusive simpler time. The ages will never be too complex for Jesus to rescue and sustain. Understanding Jesus will enable any generation to cope with and survive its age.