First Baptist Church of Herndon

The Rearview Mirror

Linda Soller | Sep 29, 2014

Rearview mirrors are really very handy. Who doesn’t want to know there is another car hiding out in their blind spot as they anticipate changing lanes, most likely without the use of a turn signal? And try as you might to convince me, when you drive past a police officer sitting off the side of the road I think you look in your rearview mirror just to be sure there is no blue light coming toward you, even if you weren’t doing anything wrong. I use my rearview mirrors successfully every day to back out of my driveway so I can head to work. Well there was the one time when I feel certain a Chipmunk pushed the trash can into my path, but that is another story. Yes there is no doubt rearview mirrors are very useful, but let’s face it, if we had to always/only drive looking in the rearview mirror we might not get to our destination.

We’ve been talking about The Journey Home in our Drop-In class. We got out our little homemade maps and everyone put their finger on the spot called home in the center of our map, put their pen on the corner marked B, and pretended they were looking in their rearview mirror as they drew a line from B to home. There were some pretty squiggly lines. The exercise did make my point. We know where home is, but getting there by looking back is tough. Life is much the same as driving by looking backwards. In life we learn from and build on each phase of our life. Sometimes it’s helpful to look back and see where we’ve been or what to avoid so we can chart our course forward. Sometimes we have to go backwards a bit before we can go forward. But if you are always looking backwards, then living your todays and especially your tomorrows becomes difficult. I feel like we all know someone who always lives looking back.

Like driving and like life, our faith shares some of the same obstacles and roadblocks. We have a bad day and we think back to other bad days, and if we aren’t careful we start to doubt if God is there for us. We decide to rededicate ourselves to our devotional and study time. It turns out to be hard and we remember when it seemed easy. We may decide it isn’t going to work at all, or we might figure out why it was easier before so we can make a change. We get so wrapped up in our “personal growth” that we forget to care for others. In this case we need to take a look back to when we spent less time on us and more time on serving, and see what was different. In the first situation looking back just gives us an excuse to turn from God, which will never get us to our destination. In the other situations we see our destination, and need to look back to figure out how to better move forward.

Fortunately God is much like that driving teacher who tried to balance helping you learn to drive and keeping everyone in the car and the cars around you alive.  God is patient. He understands we build on what we know and sometimes we have to relearn a lesson. He appreciates the value of looking back, but wants us to use those glances as a way to head in the correct direction.  I think God realizes that the roads in life keep changing so He remains faithful and supportive, with a foot poised over the emergency break. I even think that sometimes He places us where we have to look behind us just so we can fully appreciate the road ahead, and how far we have already come. Looking back can be scary, but helpful. Always looking back is even scarier, because it can keep you from seeing home, and He is home. Today take a quick glance in your rearview mirror, to be sure there are no blue lights, then face forward. God is waiting for you.

Have a great week!  :o)    Linda