Which Way Are You Looking?

Which way are you looking? If I was to ask this when you are driving, I would hope that you were looking ahead. That is unless you were backing up. But then you wouldn’t be reading this and you shouldn’t be reading this when you are driving forward either.
In our minds we always look at things that have happened. Part of that learned lesson’s thing. Our memory transports us back to what we saw and experienced. Those involved with the fall fair are now looking back and forward. What a great weekend and the weather turned out better then expected. So we look back. Most would say that when you finish yearly activity you look back so you can analyze and evaluate how things went and look forward with the changes that will make it better next year.
When looking applies to our personal life, we have a propensity to also look at what was and what is to come. If we separate the two, things change. Some miss all of what was and never desires to look for what is coming. There are people out there, (and this is not you) who only look back. They are living the good old days. We need to let them know that sometime in the future, we will be calling today, ‘the good old days’. Then there are people who are afraid of what is coming. A subject I have written on before, a fear of the unknown. As a boy I learned about past, present and future real fast. I would do something wrong and hide the evidence. That was the past. I would hear my mom say, “Wait until your father gets home.” That was the present. Funny how this was the only time she called him “father.” Then I knew what the future held. At that future moment I would cry, “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” After that future I would try to remember the past so the future does not repeat itself.
Someone once said, today is all we have and it is a gift and that is why it is call a ‘present’. I personally disagree. It is wonderful to have all the memories in our minds that are both good and bad. Good ones make us smile and bad ones remind us of how much we learned and grew from the experience. When we are fully aware of what is happening in our lives and living life to the fullest we live our today’s. But we stretch ourselves looking beyond our today with expectancy. We know the future has so many opportunities we just have to reach out to touch them. Now that is a real gift.
I will give you a glimpse of what goes through a pastor’s mind on a Monday morning. I try to remember what happened in and around the lives of the people who were at church. I remember the service and that experience. Whom did we pray for? What stood out during the morning while people visited and talked. We even analyze our service and sermons. (It makes it easier when you record the sermon.) At this point we look ahead, with all the information gathered to the next Sunday. That is where the work starts.
For those reading this, looking also involves our spiritual journey. Most of us can look back to when we didn’t know Jesus. We had no faith, no grace no God. We didn’t know him personally. It was a time when we did what we wanted and sin took hold of us. My definition of sin is something that we do that hurts God, someone else or ourselves. That was the past we want to remember but not relive. When we met Jesus, we recognized our sin and in true humility and sorrow asked God to forgive us the past. And just like that little boy of the past, we said, “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” Now we walk with God. What a wonderful ‘present’! It is in the NOW that we have an amazing relationship with the one who not only created all things but He created us. Not only do we walk with God but we have Christ in our heart, who walks with me and talks with me and helps me step aside from sin. Where His Spirit lives in me each moment of every day. What excitement to know, tomorrow is in His hands and it is going to better then today.
Then comes the ultimate, when we experience that great gettin’ up morning. When we wake to an eternity that Jesus has gone ahead to prepare for us. Look around your life and notice if these are the things you see. Ask yourself, which way am I looking?
Rob