"You hear people complaining about this present day and age because things were so much better in former times. I wonder what would happen if they could be taken back to the days of their ancestors--would we not still hear them complaining? You may think past ages were good, but it is only because you are not living in them.? (St. Augustine)

St. Augustine lived between 354 AD and 430 AD. He heard the same complaint then that we hear even today. It is the complaint that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Each age has its strengths and weaknesses. We are called to remember the past and learn from the past but not to yearn for it. It had its own problems. When people talk about the "good old days", they remind me of the Israelites in the desert. God was purifying and transforming them in preparation to entering the Promised Land. But they longed for the pleasures of Egypt, always complaining and looking back. Like Lot's wife, many of them were frozen in time. God is purifying and transforming us as we traverse through our "desert". But instead of yearning for the "good old days", he would want us to look to "days to come", sharing life with him forever in glory in our true Promised Land. It is better for us to stop complaining and instead give praise to God for what he is doing now in our lives.