This picture shows the sort of trail cyclists dream about.
Smooth road. Beautiful scenery. And the curve in the distance promises some intriguing new discovery.
Imagine a rider facing such a gorgeous trail, but unable to appreciate it because they’re concerned about some nasty potholes they encountered several miles back. To avoid them, they veered abruptly into traffic and nearly caused an accident.
It’s a decent analogy for many of us. Jesus sees a life filled with possibility, but many times we’re stuck fussing about stuff that happened in the past. We can’t appreciate the road ahead because, well, what about that accident, that dumb mistake, back there?
People still ask how we found routes on our 1500-mile Mississippi River journey. The answer is – we literally began with no idea where we were going beyond the first day. Each day, we figured out the next day.
I can’t tell you how many times we got lost. I missed a sign. Google Maps misled us because it wasn’t quite as sophisticated. Or, the route I chose the night before simply didn’t work.
Frustrating, for sure, but the next day was a new day filled with possibility and potential. Not much sense dwelling on yesterday’s wrong turns.
After all, as Jesus said, the new day brought plenty of opportunities to make new mistakes!
I don’t mean to make light of trauma and other difficult struggles by equating them to wrong turns. But I can tell you, from my own 38-year ordeal with a spinal cord injury, dwelling on yesterday’s pain only robs today of its possibilities.
It’s a tough principal, and not an easy one to live up to. I still stumble over yesterday’s stuff all the time.
But I believe Jesus wants to walk with you and me toward our potential.
He wants us to stop steering around potholes we encountered in the past.