…Don’t look back…. Gen. 19:17 (NIV)
Your car has both a windshield and rearview mirror for a reason.
There’s also a reason why they are vastly different sizes.
While driving, we occasionally glance in the rearview mirror but keep our gaze on the road ahead.
The same is true of life. Yes, there are times to look back, study history, and learn from the past. Even the Bible tells us to learn from yesteryear: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” (Romans 15:4 NIV).
However, it’s easy to stop learning from the past and instead trying to mentally live there. Many believers especially are tempted to throw up their hands, decry the messed-up present days, and pretend the past was perfect. But no perfect past ever existed, and it’s a waste of time and energy to wish that there had been.
The Bible warns us: “Don’t always be asking, “Where are the good old days?” Wise folks don’t ask questions like that” (Ecc. 7:10 MSG).
A tragic story about the consequences of living in the past can be found from Lot’s wife. Lot was a wealthy man and community leader, but although many women in the Bible are named, his wife’s name is not recorded in Scripture. She’s just referred to as “Lot’s wife.”
The city of Sodom was so wicked, it’s name is synonymous with evil even till today. However, even though Lot supposedly knew God, (he was Abraham’s nephew), Lot chose to live there because it was a prosperous and comfortable town.
Finally, reports of the city’s evil had become so odious, God decided to wipe it out. Still, in mercy, God sent angels to warn Lot and his family to escape. To show the extent to which Lot and his relatives had compromised with the world, his daughters’ husbands didn’t take the warnings seriously.
“[Lot] said, ‘Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!’ But his sons-in-law thought he was joking” (Gen. 19:14b). Even Lot dragged his feet. “When he hesitated, the [angels] grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!’”
Despite the supernatural drama of having angels come to you to take you by the hand and fire raining down to destroy the city, his wife was disobedient. “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Gen. 19:26).
The Bible doesn’t say why she looked back. Maybe she didn’t want to leave Sodom, or she longed for her life there, or she even wanted to return.
A new year is a time to reflect on the past and plan for the future. The month “January” gets its name from the Roman mythical figure Janus, the god of gates, doors, and transitions. Janus is often depicted with two faces, one looking back while one looks ahead.
So the new year season is a time to look back over the past 12 months, learn what we can, celebrate what went well, and grieve our losses and pains. But, it’s also a time to look forward. As God has been with you in the past, He will be with you in the future.
Addressing the cost and forward focus of discipleship, Luke 9:61-62 shows Christ giving a potential follower a hard teaching.
“Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.’
Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”
When warning His disciples of hard times to come and the need to put God first and everything else second, Jesus warned: “’Remember Lot’s wife!’ He said. ‘Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it’” (Luke 17:32-33).
“Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul,
Not hastening to, nor turning from the goal;
Nor mourning things that disappear
In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To youth and age, and travels on with cheer.
So let the way wind up the hill or down,
Through rough or smooth, the journey will be joy,
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy —
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,
I shall grow old, but never lose life’s zest,
Because the road’s last turn will be the best.”
–Henry Van Dyke
Take the next step: What habits, hurts, offenses etc. from your past are you still carrying with you that can keep you from fully facing the new year ahead? Using the car metaphor, as you go through life, do you focus on the windshield or the rearview mirror?
Go Deeper: What does it mean to “remember Lot’s wife”?
S.D.G./S.G.D.
