Looking Forward By Looking Back

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. [Isaiah 43: 18-19]

Can looking backward inspire dreams?

Does the past reveal aspirations and goals, the sort of impossible dream that spurred Don Quixote to attack an unbeatable enemy that appeared to everyone else as a windmill? Can you discover that unreachable star in the rear view mirror?

I get a lot of inspiration from my pastors, but I wondered a bit this weekend as we were invited to look forward by looking back. I know it must be difficult to come up with fresh sermon ideas, but this one seemed initially to be a bit of a stretch. As he read these verses from Isaiah 43, I was skeptical. How did he intend to dredge a New Year’s message from some “new thing” God was doing twenty-five centuries ago?

The conventional view holds that you dream big by looking forward, by imagining a future that’s seemingly beyond your grasp. Kennedy inspired a nation by directing our gaze toward the moon and encouraging us to reach too far. His dream required innovation, imagination, commitment, courage, and sacrifice I’m sure he didn’t envision when he spoke the words that sent us on a ten-year journey to another world. (If you like, you can read those famous speeches here and here.)

In those speeches, Kennedy set the stage for his proposed vision by first examining the course of history. He discovered direction for the future in the past, and that’s what God was saying through Isaiah.

Perhaps conventional wisdom is wrong. Maybe you can look forward by first looking back.

I want to see where God wants to take me. Perhaps a glance back will provide a glimpse of what He intends.

A Decade Ago:

I wallowed in depression, still struggling in darkness following a paralyzing injury. I perceived no hope, no way out, no possibility of joy or light.

I was alone. A horrible confluence of bad decisions, unfortunate circumstances, and personal failures left me isolated and incapable of imagining love.

Relentless Grace wasn’t even a dream. I couldn’t see God’s persistent pursuit of a lost, wandering soul. Depression and anger clouded a horizon of hopelessness.

Writing a book, sharing an improbable story, hadn’t appeared on the radar. I was a math teacher—that was my identity, my destiny. I didn’t want, and couldn’t imagine, anything else.

I hadn’t reconnected with Becky. The notion that we would be together, married, exploring a deep, loving, fulfilling relationship, was simply unimaginable.

But …

In one short decade, those “impossibilities” became inevitable realities. Looking back reveals an improbable, unimaginable path through an incredible landscape of indescribable wonder. Looking back shows me that God is always at work, always doing a new thing, even when I do not perceive it.

I don’t know where the next decade will take me, but looking back encourages me to look forward with excitement and hope, to dream big, and mostly to know that whatever I imagine is far too limited in comparison to the new thing God has in mind.

Oh—one more thing. Looking back takes me to the last page of Relentless Grace where I recorded the scripture my friend Al used to bless our marriage:

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. [Isaiah 43: 18-19]

Looking back—what new thing is God doing in your life?