The Al Bundy Syndrome

The Al Bundy Syndrome

“The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’” Haggai 2:9 ESV

Remember the show “Married With Children”? The father, AL Bundy was a shoe salesman who hated his life. He never wanted to have sex with his wife. His kids basically had to fend for themselves. He hated his next door neighbor and always called her a chicken. The show was comical! I used to love it. The one thing he always brought up was his glory days in high school when he was a start quarterback. He always talked about Polk High School, and how he scored four touchdowns in one game. That memory would always take him back to a place and time when he felt like “the man”! The time when he peaked in his athletic career. And he loved meeting back up with people from those days who remembered him for his success.

In thinking about this particular scripture in Haggai, I was reminded of Al Bundy. Israel was kind of like that. They were in the process of rebuilding the temple that was destroyed. The former temple was amazing! Solomon built it and it was a great symbol of Israel’s wealth and power in the world at that time. People from everywhere looked at the temple and concluded that God must have loved Israel and blessed them because those were their glory days. They had peace in the land; incredible wealth; a famous king; notoriety and respect. Them, according to scripture, because they turned away from God and forgot that it was He who gave them this power, God sent them into captivity through Babylon, Persia and Assyria. Where they were formally living in wealth and freedom, them found themselves in slavery to other nations who took their symbols of wealth and destroyed the temple. Everything that they looked to as a symbol of God’s blessing on them was taken away. And seventy years later, they were tasked with rebuilding the temple.

But the new temple didn’t look like the old one. It didn’t have as many amenities that they had before. There was less gold and silver and bronze. It wasn’t as big as it was back in the day. It may have been quite disappointing to Israel to see that they were being given a chance to rebuild, but it didn’t have as much “stuff” as they did before. God was encouraging Israel that His presence was not evident by a temple made by the hands of men. He was always with them, regardless of their outward conditions. It may have looked like they had less wealth and power than they had before, but God’s presence was all they needed. And if they had that, then they would always be a reflection of His glory.

This same syndrome can be true for us in many ways. Many of us are looking back to the days when we had more money, more popularity, more fame, more success in our eyes. It may look like God is not “blessing” you in the same way He did in the past. But the one thing we have to remember is that the presence of God in our lives is not indicated by how much Stuff we accumulate. As a matter of fact, it is often evident more so in the fact that without all of our “stuff” God still provides. This of how much “stuff” Jesus owned. Not much. Not even a home. Yet there was no question of how much God was with him.

The more we get stuck on our self-proclaimed glory days, the less we focus on what God can do and is doing in our life right now. Your best days are not behind you, they are ahead of you. Regardless of how much you have materially. If you fall into the trap of thinking that the best of your life was lived in the past, then you will get stuck there. You will miss the opportunity to embrace the life that God called you to live in the present. God was with you when you scored four touchdowns in one game, and God is with you now. God was with you when you became prom queen and God is with you now. God was with you when you had a six figure income and God is with you now. God was with you when you when you won those awards and God is with you now. It doesn’t matter what physical manifestations you have or don’t have. If God is with you, then you have all you need right now. Never-mind what you had before. It was not the best of what God can do in your life. The best is yet to come.