Tag: Euphoric Recall

“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”¹ — King Solomon

Our high school class of 1975 just celebrated our 50^th reunion. It was fabulous — full of joy, reminiscence, interest, and care. We were always “close,” certainly by graduating class standards, so I eagerly basked in the passion and warmth of the evening. Still, if we were to go back 50 years as invisible visitors to our more youthful selves, we would recall more fully the tensions and trials among us at the time. (After all, we were teenagers.)

There is among people a natural proclivity toward “euphoric recall,” the tendency to recollect past experiences more positively than they actually were and not to remember the negative things associated with those events — the doubts, disappointments, and insecurities of life. For memory bias inflates our past as something more than it was, distorts our present as something less by comparison, and sets an unreasonable standard for what tomorrow must deliver. It lures us “back” to an embellished version of yesterday and, by comparison, a disappointment with today.

Such revisionism is not new. After God delivered his enslaved people from Egypt and led them toward the promised land, some among them began to romanticize about “the good old days” in the land of their captors. “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”² Eventually they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”³ What?! Return to forced enslavement⁴, harsh labor ruthlessly enforced⁵, the killing of newborn Hebrew boys?!⁶ Oh, the extremes to which we can fool ourselves, and alas, the danger therein.

So let’s turn the table on euphoric recall through the clarity of truth. Paul writes: “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”⁷

These are the “good old days” — days of liberty, transformation, and grace, each one new and filled with purpose. So, rejoice! Go forward! And remember them well.

Father, your steadfast love never ceases; Your mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.⁸ Amen.

¹ Ecclesiastes 7:10
² Numbers 11:4-6 NIV
³ Numbers 11:4 NIV
⁴ Exodus 1:11
⁵ Exodus 1:14
⁶ Exodus 1:17
⁷ Titus 3:3-7 ESV
⁸ Lamentations 3:22-23

My high school graduating class was special; we were close. We knew it then, and we know it now. We can — and often do — tell story after story, laughing harder now than we did at the time, for as we recollect our younger antics from a now older perspective, we shake our heads with a grin — “What were we thinking?!?” We will gather next summer for our 50^th class reunion. Hard to believe.

Those of us who are prone to reminisce about “the good old days” when life was “carefree” do well to remember them more completely. For we are naturally prone to “euphoric recall,” the tendency to remember past experiences more positively than they actually were and not to remember the negative things associated with those events — the troubles, insecurities, danger, and confusion, for instance. Such romanticism is tantalizing and misleading, painting a revisionist reflection of the past, and dulling our present by contrast. Solomon warns against it: “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”¹ For memory bias inflates our past as something more than it was, distorts our present as something less than it is, and sets an unreasonable standard for what tomorrow must be. Yes, it is hard to compete with euphoric recall.

But when we look back more honestly, remembering the bad with the good, we can appreciate something far greater than the false foundation of selective memory: the undeterred faithfulness of our proactive God. Paul’s truthful perspective on the past resonates still today: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy . . .”² This was our reality — far from euphoric — until God stepped in. Paul continues, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”³

God’s plan for us far exceeds any other narrative we can construct through selective memory. We look back, yes, but not to return to an imaginary past, rather to gain strength for our sure and certain way forward.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”⁴

Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!⁵ Amen.

¹ Ecclesiastes 7:10 ESV
² Titus 3:3 ESV
³ Titus 3:4-7 ESV
⁴ Hebrews 13:8 ESV
⁵ Psalm 25:6-7 ESV