In my day...

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off. – Ezra 3.12-13

I’m not an old guy yet. (I keep telling myself that in hopes that I can convince myself of it)

However I was saved as an adult and I have been saved since February 1974. I was living in Alabama though I was going to college in Pennsylvania. Alabama in the mid 1970s was the belt buckle when the American Deep South was the Bible Belt.

I remember city-wide revivals. Though I wasn't saved yet I remember when shops closed all day Sunday and then closed at noon on Wednesday so folks could go to mid-week prayer meetings. I remember when ‘everyone’ went to church on Sunday and Wednesday. I remember that cultural values matched up with Bible values. I remember when laws protected Christians. In those days and in that place there was a lot of excitement about being a Christian and one could hardly be blamed for thinking we were going to bring in the millennium all on our own.

Of course, there was a lot of delusion and rose tinted glasses, but still those days can seem like the ‘good ole days’ and we look back almost with wonder.

So it's not too surprising that us old timers don’t get too excited these days when we see the ‘little’ victories and ‘small advances.’ I’ve not only changed times, but also cultures so it is somewhat easy to look at things and almost have an attitude of ‘well yeah, that's great, but in my day…’

That's kind of where the Jews found themselves here. It is somewhat surprising that we see the reaction to the completion of the Temple when we remember the celebration after they laid the foundation. They had laid the foundation of the Temple and were well on their way to restoring worship. The same problem is going to crop us when the Temple is done.

How it must have felt to be excited about God’s work being done and have a bunch of old people crying because it was not like the good old days. How discouraging to have your praise dampened by nostalgia.

Those of us who are getting that little bit older must not ever be guilty of dampening the fervour of young believers who are excited about what God is doing today because it is not like ‘it was when I was young.’

Let's rejoice together at what God is doing today. God is at work and He is still worthy of praise.