Which way are you looking?

This article was originally written in December of 2005

Christmas time is here again. I trust you had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a fantastic Christmas. I am sure there will be several wanted items under the tree and great time of sharing with the family. This Christmas marks the 12th Christmas since my Mom went home with the Lord and the 11th Christmas since my Dad passed away. My parents were not just parents but friends as well and I miss them very much. I can see a picture, hear a sound, or smell an aroma and memories of them will come rushing in, uninvited. It seems at those times that the hands of time turn backwards and I expect to hear their voice again.

I have had to change my perspective over the years from looking back to looking forward. When I look back I remember good times, but that just makes me miss them more. When I miss them I become depressed and feel lonely. It does not make sense for a guy with a loving wife and eight great children to feel lonely but if I dwell on what I don’t have, but it can happen.

If I permit that feeling to grow, it can influence every part of my being. My physical, mental, and spiritual health suffers from the dark cloud I have permitted to stay. Not only does it impact my present condition but it clouds the horizon of my future. It becomes hard to see what the next step should be and harder to find the energy to do it.

Looking back is dangerous. It cost Lot’s wife her life when she looked back at the things she was leaving behind. Although her sons and her daughters-in-law were being destroyed in Sodom, God said to keep looking forward. She paid for her disobedience with her life.

In Genesis 19:17 it says:
"So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed."

""But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."
Genesis 19:26

God tells us today the same thing in Luke:

“And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."”
Luke 9:61-62

And in Philippians 3:13–14, Paul says it this way:

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Everyday, I have a choice to live in the past or press ahead. Looking back I miss people but looking forward I become excited at seeing them and our Saviour. Looking ahead keeps focused on what is important. What do you need to do today, what can you do today, to earn rewards in heaven? Which way are you looking?

Beyond thinking about which way you are looking, what are you doing? What can you do today that will put a smile on Jesus’ face? What can you do to encourage someone else to look up and look to the Lord of Comfort and Hope. What can you do?