I remember the days when us kids would hop in the box of pickup-trucks and go for a ride. That was in the age when it was not illegal but equally a bad idea.
It was so exciting to gaze over the tailgate and watch the trees and signs wiz past the back of my head. I would then lock my eyes on a particular object and become fascinated with watching it come into focus as we moved further away.
Life tends to work in the same way. It whirls experiences by our head that can only be brought into focus by moving past them. How could we possibly know the positive impact of our painful experience unless we move beyond it? How would we see the blessings within a loss without moving through it? How could the reason for a period of excruciating pain possibly come into perspective until we become far enough away from it that we can see it clearly? It is not until we move past the object that we can focus on it and understand what the purpose of it was.
When in the back of the truck, I could have turned around and watched that same object through the windshield. What a different perspective that would have been. I would have known what was coming, perhaps it would have spoiled my fun though. Things seemed to come much slower when looking ahead rather than seeing what unfolded behind. And what if we stopped or turned? The object that I anticipated seeing would have never come into full view.
If I have learned anything from looking back, it is that it rarely looks the same as it did when I was looking ahead. If all things came to us the way we “planned”, we would never experience hardships and blunders. We don’t fill our dreams with hurdles, or pepper our plans with hurts, although, it is the bumps in the road that makes life an interesting ride.
If we are trusting that Christ is in charge, then we are trusting that we are going where He intends for us to go. It is up to us to pray for direction then move ahead. It is when we do that we are rewarded by getting to look behind and watch the past unfold.
We can set goals, have dreams, and look ahead. But the only way that we will know for certain what lies ahead, is by moving forward then looking back.
It was so exciting to gaze over the tailgate and watch the trees and signs wiz past the back of my head. I would then lock my eyes on a particular object and become fascinated with watching it come into focus as we moved further away.
Life tends to work in the same way. It whirls experiences by our head that can only be brought into focus by moving past them. How could we possibly know the positive impact of our painful experience unless we move beyond it? How would we see the blessings within a loss without moving through it? How could the reason for a period of excruciating pain possibly come into perspective until we become far enough away from it that we can see it clearly? It is not until we move past the object that we can focus on it and understand what the purpose of it was.
When in the back of the truck, I could have turned around and watched that same object through the windshield. What a different perspective that would have been. I would have known what was coming, perhaps it would have spoiled my fun though. Things seemed to come much slower when looking ahead rather than seeing what unfolded behind. And what if we stopped or turned? The object that I anticipated seeing would have never come into full view.
If I have learned anything from looking back, it is that it rarely looks the same as it did when I was looking ahead. If all things came to us the way we “planned”, we would never experience hardships and blunders. We don’t fill our dreams with hurdles, or pepper our plans with hurts, although, it is the bumps in the road that makes life an interesting ride.
If we are trusting that Christ is in charge, then we are trusting that we are going where He intends for us to go. It is up to us to pray for direction then move ahead. It is when we do that we are rewarded by getting to look behind and watch the past unfold.
We can set goals, have dreams, and look ahead. But the only way that we will know for certain what lies ahead, is by moving forward then looking back.
