Forward

On the top of my noticeboard in the office where others may have an inspirational quote or a cheesy slogan, in purple whiteboard marker pen is one word. It is a very important word – it is the word ‘forward’. It is a reminder to keep facing forward and thinking about the future; a reminder to the part of me that is a business owner spending much of his day facing that whiteboard. It is also a reminder for the rest of life too – the personal, the spiritual, the everyday ordinary family life.

The past is seductive

Rather than facing forward, it is often easier to look to look in the opposite direction. The past is powerful. For those who have challenging events in their past, it can be hard not to drift back in time constantly reliving the pain of those days. Scientists have suggested that negative experiences are especially good at imprinting themselves on our brain. It is nature’s way of keeping us out of danger – the bear ate our friend so now my brain keeps me focused on bears!

For others, the relationship with the past can be a different one. Perhaps there was a particular period of golden days where life was good, and now things are not so great. Our thoughts, and our selective memory, drift back in time. So, either way, the past with its pain or its sweet pleasures is a seductive place for our thoughts to dwell.

Although I am not particularly excessively prone to either of the tendencies above, I am aware of the risks and having the word ‘forward’ in my eyeline for most of the day is a good reminder.

A New thing vs getting stuck

One of the biblical verses that has really stuck with me in recent years as I’ve navigated a number of big changes is from Isaiah. In chapter 43 v 18-19, the prophet urges us to ‘forget the former things, do not dwell in the past, See I (God) am doing a new thing…’ It invites us to look forward seeing optimistic possibilities.

Isaiah 43:18-19 NLT (youversion)

Again, this is challenging to human nature; we can be quite conservative and wary of change. It is often safer to stick rather than twist. Just like the older teacher in our late 90s training session who said he wouldn’t be bothering with this new ‘internet thing’, we can dismiss the new in its entirety without taking time to weigh up what is good or bad.

Those of us who belong to faith communities are not immune from this. We can find those whose musical tastes are largely 18^th century – nothing before or after Wesley, we have those who insist on only using the King James Bible – modern when first used but, despite its poetic beauty, now dated. All these things were once new things, and they may or may not still have their place today, but it is important not to get stuck or to only look backwards because God may just be wanting to do a new thing.

Pressing on

There is a place for remembering the past – traditions such as Eucharist and Passover are acts of remembrance. There may be things that matter to us that we carry with us, but we don’t stay in the past with them, we carry those things with us into the future. So as much as I respect the past, I am more interested in the future – because that’s the direction I’m heading. As hard as it may be, we must keep moving forward because the future will arrive whether we are ready or not.

Again, human nature threatens to trip us up at this point and we can alternate between excitement and fear. Yes, change is scary and the future is uncertain but for those of us who have faith, we have faith in a God who urges us not to worry and to trust him. There is hope, and by facing forward, we are expressing our faith that God has good things in store for us.

In the New Testament, Paul in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 3 v 12-14) echoes the thoughts of Isaiah. ‘not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal… but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal…’ Like Paul, I am very much a work in progress, I’m not there yet, but I’m moving forward. I am not totally sure of what the future holds but I am looking forward to it.

I’m not sure what your situation is or how easy it is to look forward. But I hope you are able to make peace with whatever is in the past. I hope that when you turn to face forward, you do so with more excitement than fear; there may be new things to look forward to.