Glory Days...

I was visiting my family over the 4th of July when I heard Bruce Springsteen's song "Glory Days" and I haven't been able to get that song out of my head ever since!

 

 

 

Let's be honest, who doesn't connect with this song? We've all got our "glory days" that we think back on, that we long for, or that we reminisce about. One of the reasons the song hits me is because the opening verse talks about his high school baseball days. (Check out this article in the NY Times about the back-story to this first verse.) The song’s stories of reconnecting with old friends that reminisce about the good ol’ days pulls on just about everyone’s heartstrings. Besides, who doesn’t love the honky-tonk sound, whose words just roll off the tongue as it takes us back in time to our own “glory days”?

But years ago I heard from a good friend of mine, an expert on Springsteen, who thought that this song was really lamenting how much we focus on "the glory days." Really? Are you sure? My friend went on to say how, in his opinion, Springsteen was really commenting about our tendency to try to recapture the past because many of us are unhappy in the present.

With that in mind I re-listened to the song, I watched the video, and sure enough I would agree. In the final verse Springsteen has this to say about the "glory days:"

And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of, 

well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

 

His fear is that in his waning years all he will have are those “boring stories of glory days.” And to be truthful, who doesn’t have this same fear? Many of us might already prefer to live out those golden memories rather than face the reality of today.

Well days after hearing this song I read Ecclesiastes 7:10, "Don't long for "the good old days." This is not wise" (NLT). Wow! If anyone would know this to be true it would be the author of the book of Ecclesiastes (traditionally thought to be Solomon, the King of Ancient Israel, 970-930 B.C.); a man who let nothing stop him from enjoying anything and everything about life. And even though he lived "the glory days" he realized they were "meaningless." As a matter of fact, he used the word meaningless 24 times in Ecclesiastes!

But I think he uses "meaningless" not because some of these things are inherently bad or evil (though some of them certainly are, especially when used with no restraint or in the wrong context, for example 2:3, 10) but because these things were done in a life that was lived apart from God. That's why we see him telling the reader in chapter 12 "don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator" (NLT). He goes on to say seven different times how the reader should "remember him," referring to God.

So is remembering "the glory days" a bad thing? I don't think so. For we see many Psalms where the author recounts God's faithfulness to his people through the years (Psalms 105, 106, 114, 126, 132, 135 and especially 136). Where we run into problems is when we realize that “the glory days” were spent apart from God.

Therefore, I encourage us today to welcome Jesus Christ as “the Lord” and “shepherd” (Ps. 23:1) of our lives and to “honor him in your youth (however old you are) before you grow old and say, ‘Life is not pleasant anymore’” (Eccles. 12:1, NLT).