Stories I've heard of people who were lost, then rescued, contain a variation of this sentence: "I got confused and lost my sense of direction". Whether or not it's about wandering in some back country wilderness or having made an unwise decision, losing one's sense of direction is a dilemma that we all face. Go back? Forward? What's the right direction?
My dear friend, Susan, historian and author, sparked my thoughts about these questions while reading the latest contribution to her blog, "My year of living backwards". If it wasn't for the fact that I know her to be one of the most talented, creative people I know, I might have questioned her choice of words.
Living backwards. Isn't that what we're not supposed to do? Doesn't present, let alone future success, hinge on moving forward in spite of the past? As I've mused on the topic several seemingly contradictory Scripture passages come to mind. In the first, Philippians 3:13, the Apostle Paul talks about forgetting the former things so that our past doesn't hinder experiencing all that God has for us each coming day. Forget the things that hinder our progress!
In contrast, a number of other passages written by the same man, exhort us to remember God's grace toward us, to recall the need for respectfulness, to refrain from nastiness and to avoid evil.
On the other hand, Susan's right: looking back on life has got to be one of the best ways to ensure that we are moving forward. I can't think of a better spiritual GPS system than to remember the times we've been spared the results of our own foolishness and to recall God's goodness to us even when we’ve been less than gracious to someone else.
"It is God who works in [us] for His good pleasure" Philippians 2:13Â
