Stop looking back

By Jessica Brodie

Have you ever gotten so worked up about something that happened long ago that you can’t seem to get past it?

Maybe it was a wrong done to you, a tragedy or great trauma you walked through or a sinful experience. Whatever it is, perhaps you thought you’d moved on. Yet in nightmares or inconvenient moments, there it is, lurking on the edges of your subconscious, filling you with dread or discomfort. 

Perhaps that’s why certain stories in the Bible can feel harsh—such as Lot’s wife in Genesis 19, who turned into a pillar of salt for looking back to see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. (She had daughters and sons-in-law in those cities. Surely she was worried about them!) Or Jesus’s warning—to the man who wanted to say goodbye to his family before following him as a disciple—that “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62 NIV). (Was it truly so wrong for the man to want to say goodbye to his loved ones?)

Harsh or not, that’s what God commands: Stop looking back. Keep your gaze on what’s ahead, on what God has in store, not on what once was. We might not understand why, and we might not agree with God’s command, but still—we must heed it. Sometimes God’s commands are for our physical good, and sometimes they’re for our spiritual good, but regardless—we know, because these commands are from God, that they are for our good and for God’s glory.

Yet we persist in looking back, stubbornly, wantonly, painfully, and almost always to our own detriment.

Some of us are still doing this now, as we live into our new future as a denomination.

Yes, The United Methodist Church has experienced hardship over the past several years. We’ve lost about 23 percent of our churches to separation, and this on the heels of a devastating pandemic. But if we keep looking back, keep lamenting, keep holding onto anger or sadness or worry or whatever else it is that keeps our minds on yesterday, we’re doing a disservice to the Lord. Our backwards-looking mentality becomes an obstacle to God’s forward-looking plan. And God has so much good in store for us.

In Isaiah 43:18-19, God urges through the prophet, “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 wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

God is doing a “new thing” in the UMC. Let’s look ahead ... together.