Looking Back

I have lauded, over several hundred postings, the virtue and value of the ‘giants’ in my life but I have said little about the lives of failures, fools and sinners.  Yet everyone whom we take cognizance of makes a contribution to our welfare.  The scoundrel or wastrel can serve our success quite as well as the hero.  One shows us the experiences to be avoided while the other is setting up the examples for us to follow. 

The scriptures, for the discerning reader, provide examples not only of the finest in human response to the challenges or opportunities of life, but also the tragedies experienced by those who chose to take the ‘low road’ when the better choice was ignored, disregarded, or fought against.  There are probably at least as many villains as saints in the holy writ and it is intended that we learn from both. 

 

Take Lot’s wife, for example.  Lot was the nephew of the great Old Testament prophet Abraham.  When Lot’s family chose the verdant Jordan River valley as their place of residence it so happened that two very wicked cities occupied the southern part of the valley.  (The Lord always provides for or allows an “opposition in all things,” even good things, so that man can make moral choices.) When the sin and depravity of the inhabitants of these two cities became more than the Lord could tolerate from these unrepentant children He warned them that they would be destroyed.  He gave a last chance for any righteous to quickly leave the area before He “rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire.”  Lot got his family out before the conflagration occurred but his wife, not being strong enough to carry out the commandment of the angels against looking back, looked or turned back.  Because she disobeyed she ‘became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26).  She became the negative example for us to learn from. 

New Testament writer Luke suggested that looking back on sin would also be a part of our own problem.  While he was making a comparison between the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the destruction that will attend our own society at the Second Coming of Christ he said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32).  To ‘remember Lot’s wife” may keep us from making her mistake.  

One of the leaders of my Church (Sterling W. Sill) many years ago made these observations:  

We may not always look where we are going, but we can be pretty sure that we will usually go where we are looking.  

Back in the old days on the farm, the horses’ bridles were equipped with blinders to give their attention a forward focus.  When the horses were without blinders, the distractions from right and left caused them to step on too many plans or to make a crooked furrow. 

When we listen to the voices enticing us from behind, the power of our forward purpose is usually lost.

We cannot even afford to look back on our successes for longer than it takes to confirm their lessons.  For as someone has said, ‘You can’t win this year’s ball games by reading last year’s press notices.’ 

And George Washington, without quite as much verve as Sterling Sill, remarked:

            “Never look back except to derive useful lessons from past errors and profit from our dearly bought experience.” 

So to take Washington’s advice we should look back and ‘Remember Lot’s wife,’ but only to learn from her error; not to look back at what she found so fascinating. 

Jesus provides even better advice and this warning:  

            “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).   

Unless looking back gives us the power to move forward.