Looking Back to See Forward

Had a few spare hours lately and decided to attack my growing number of unread emails. Seems, like you, I never get back to either read them or just delete.  In the first hour I deleted over two hundred and fifty unread emails and about the same in emails I read or forgot to delete. As I looked up at the clock on the book shelf striking the hour I got to thinking, what emails came across my screen one year ago today?

The first one I read was from my daughter who had come over to the house one day while we were away and did some computer work for me. Did a great job and told me all about it, what she did, what she found, how fast it would be when I next turned it on and then told me we keep the temperature in the house way too low. She was right then and still right today.

The second email I reread was my Ayr News Article from that week one year ago. I wrote at that time about having secrets that are secrets everyone else but are no secret to God. As I read it over, I realized some things never change over time.  We are still the same people, keeping the same secrets as we feel God loving us in spite of who we are or what wrong we have done.

Then again, if we think about it, life has changed. Mind you, for most, they are not colossal things. Maybe for you it’s all those inconsequential things that take us down this journey of life. The kids are older. Grand kids? Well, they are no longer kids. We even cleared the toys out of the toy room this year. Now it’s a tv/reading room that gets little use. There may be some who have experienced bigger changes, more important changes. Changes involving our occupation or we lost them. Going to work takes more energy and for countless reasons we arrive home tired just like last year and with less money.

Life changing situations unfortunately also come our way. Some of us have lost loved ones. Others notice friends who are no longer calling. We have stoically endured setbacks while occasionally asked, “Why me?” Not something we wanted but then again, God knows those secrets we hide so well. Through all these small insignificant moments, or big gargantuan situations in life, we can look deep and see the hand of God. He is that potter moulding us and making us into a better vessel for His mission here in our world.

Again, I go back yet another year to February 2012.  Most of the emails around that date have been read. Interestingly many of them seemed to be emails from me to me. This one stands out as I look back to what was going through my mind and heart two years ago today. It reads;   "When God's people allow God's truth to realign them to God's will and God's standard, then the power of God will be released through them the same way it was through the first disciples." - Richard Blackaby

Maybe a note from two years ago can carry us through those two lost years and give us courage to face another day today.

Something to think about.