Don’t look back!
There it was. Right on the tiny piece of paper I slipped out from my fortune cookie:
“If you look back, you’ll soon be going that way.”
I had been stewing about past arguments, plentiful frustrations, painful regrets, and pitiful disappointments. It all had made me extremely cynical and unable to even attempt to visualize a life that could look any differently. Sadly, I couldn’t see that by keeping my mind in that proverbial gutter indeed sealed a future just as bleak.
God used an unlikely method to get my attention, but it worked.
How often do we define ourselves by what we’ve accomplished, or put our trust in earthly dreams? Yet we often fail to recognize the danger of that roller coaster ride that includes some pretty steep tracks that leave our stomach in knots and our voices raspy.
Jesus instructs us not to look for and trust in treasures here on earth. After all, there is always something that will threaten to take them away. They are bound to never last. Be very careful about setting your heart on temporary vainglory, where heartache awaits in the shadows.
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
Lot’s wife left her heart in Sodom, an extremely wicked city that had rebelled against God and was determined to not only practice sin but to flaunt it in their Creator’s face. With the city bound for destruction, God graciously gave the semi-righteous Lot and his family time to narrowly escape.
“Flee for your lives!,” the angel sent to them urged. “Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” (Genesis 19:17).
But Lot’s unnamed wife spurned this chance for salvation. Her heart remained in her past life, despite the fault line that had grown larger and larger right beneath her feet, threatening to open up and pull her in. She ignored and disobeyed the warning, and followed her wayward heart instead, ending up just like those who had remained in the town.
“But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26)
It’s tempting to settle for what we’ve always known, and sometimes without even realizing how destructive it was, and is. We might become enamored with false hope, setting us up for disappointment, or we might simply resort to wallowing in depression because of broken dreams. Either way, we’re neither moving forward nor sitting still. Rather, there is only one direction we’re headed.
“If you look back, you’ll soon be going that way.”
If you put your trust in Jesus Christ and follow Him, however, you are headed for the opposite direction. In fact, your feet will be stationed on a track that leads to a finish line which, once crossed, will be replete with reward:
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14).
Don’t wallow in past hurts and failures. And don’t leave your heart in “Sodom”, which can only lead to trouble and will soon be gone.
“But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20).
Be assured that as you look forward, and you keep your eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), that you’ll soon be going that way. Your future will be brighter in this life and the eternal one to come. Learn from the past, but don’t look back - press on for the prize!