Wednesday, October 16, 2002

My sons love roller coasters - the more daring, the better. This is not a case of "like father, like son," I assure you. I was originating a radio program from a major amusement park, and I came upon a roller coaster that actually offered you a choice. I noticed that there were two lines for Rolling Thunder - the sign over one said, "Forward" ... the sign over the other line said, "Backwards." It didn't take me long to figure out that they were offering riders the option of actually riding this roller coaster looking backwards the whole time. No, thank you!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Looking Backwards."

Unfortunately, a lot of people live their lives like the people on that roller coaster - always looking backwards, looking at where they've already been instead of where they're going. And that pretty much guarantees that your life is going to be a roller coaster ride!

God addresses our tendency to keep nursing the past in Isaiah 43 , beginning with verse 16 - it's our word for today from the Word of God. First, He reminds us of the credentials of the One who is calling us to focus on where we're headed - "This is what the Lord says - He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick."

With that reminder of God's way-making, obstacle-removing power as a backdrop, He says this: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." God's words couldn't be plainer - "do not dwell on the past." Are you? If so, you are likely to miss the new thing God is trying to do in your life. You're in the "looking backwards" car, dwelling on things that happened to you or things you did in the past - and you're missing the exciting things that are ahead for you.

Maybe you're harboring old hurts, always bringing that painful past into the present by your constant replaying of what happened. You just will not let it go - and so it never lets go of you. You don't hold a grudge - a grudge holds you. Maybe you've continually held past offenses against someone, or you've defined yourself as a victim based on the bad things that have happened to you, or you're dwelling on what you've lost or how you've failed. That's the past - it can't be changed. But the future is yet to be written - and it doesn't have to be more of the same - unless you keep carrying the darkness of your past into your present.

Isn't it time to close that volume of your life? It's time to start Page One of a whole new volume. God is near you today, saying, "I am doing a new thing. Can't you see it?" Maybe you're scared to go for the new thing. Remember - you're following your Lord into that new thing. That's the Lord that parts Red Seas, buries mighty armies, makes a way in the desert, and does miracles in the wilderness.

There are two ways to go - looking backwards and looking forward. You've been looking backwards look enough. Turn around. There are some exciting things ahead for those who will quit looking back.