Have you heard of the expression, “Back in the day…”. Back in the day, times were simpler. Back in the day, this place was hopping. Back in the day I could eat anything and not gain weight.

Recently, I have been hearing from different folks, in different settings, all referring to some type of back in the day. The theme through all these laments is a wistful look at the past and how much better things were than in the present experience.

I get it. I have been in new settings where the people in the new situation don’t know my past, my background or even what I looked like. There have been times when I want to preface every explanation- “if you knew me then…, if you knew my family history…, I used to…” Many of us end up driving through life looking at our rear view mirror. I know that I have been guilty of that at times.

I had once heard a gentleman say, if you drive a car by constantly looking in the rearview mirror, you cannot go forward for very long without running into something.

As much as I miss some things from the past, I don’t want to stay there. I need to look forward. I need to live into my present reality.

It makes me think of the Hebrew people and their journey out of Egypt. For much of their time in the wilderness, they kept looking back at their time in Egypt and not seeing their present and future reality. While the past was slavery and their present and future was freedom, all they could see was the familiar provisions of the past and missed the miraculous present provisions.

I wonder, when I concentrate on missing the past, what am I missing that is right around me?

Of course, we should be retrospective at times. That can help in our current understanding. But to be continually focused on retrospection, will not move us forward much.

What about you? Do you think of situations, “back in the day…”? Do you lament a past? Are you so focused on what is behind you that you miss what is happening before you?

The thing is, most times the “back in the day” wasn’t so great. Just like the Israelites “forgot” about the horrors of being enslaved in Egypt, we can forget that the good ole days weren’t necessarily always so good. But, we can, with hope, look to our present and future, knowing that if we at least focus on where we are headed, there is a good chance we can get where we are going in one piece.