Looking Back

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. A time for reflection and remembering the past, bringing out the things we’re so thankful for. For some reason I always find myself returning to the days of my youth, I suppose it was just a simpler time then. We were the typical Norman Rockwell over-organized dysfunctional family that gathered at grandmother’s house for the day. There was always so much food the huge table we sat at couldn’t hold it all. Grandma was a baking freak. Pies and cakes and cookies were always visible cooling in the kitchen and/or the enclosed porch at the back of the house. Never once, that I can remember, did she not have something mixed up and baking in the oven, I think she baked every day. And if it wasn’t in the oven, she had something cooking in a pot over a flame for the next scheduled feeding. I can also remember much of her baked goods going out the back door to a sick friend, a close friend, a family in need, or just a relative with love. As I grow older I realize her quiet activities of thoughtfulness had a little more influence on me than I had previously understood, another good reason to revisit the past every now and then, and be thankful for who we are because of others.
It’s not always in our best interest to look back. A Sunday school teacher was describing how Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted, “My mommy turned back once while she was driving”, he announced, “and turned into a telephone pole!” On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man in history to run a mile in less than four minutes. Within two months, John Landy eclipsed the record by 1.4 seconds. On August 7, 1954 the two met for a historic race. As they moved into the last lap, Landy held the lead. It looked as if he would win, but as he neared the finish he was haunted by the though, “Where is Bannister?” As he turned to look, Bannister took the lead. Landy later told a Time magazine reporter, “If I hadn’t looked back, I’d have won!”
[1 Corinthians 9: 24-27] One of the most descriptive pictures of life in the Bible is of an athlete competing in a race. There is a finish line and there is a prize awaiting those who desire it. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that lasts forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.” The basic lesson here is to live, as God would have us to live, always looking ahead with hope to the reward at the end of our race, eternal life in God’s love. We are encouraged to not look back on our mistakes and past sins letting them bog us down in guilt and shame. We have to believe that what’s behind us must be erased from our mind and forgotten. That’s hard to do because they’re always mixed in with the good things we wish to remember and cherish. There’s a great cure for this dilemma. Jesus has instructed the believers, that on the first day of the week, each should look back and remember a great tragedy, His death on the cross. And to remember His triumphant resurrection from the grave wherein lies our hope and strength for running the race of life. It is the resurrection of Christ that points me heavenward and guides me to the finish I so desire. Jesus is preparing a place (prize) for me, right now.