Looking Forward

I recently watched a rather interesting television program.

It was about a man who found himself moving backward in time.

When the man woke up each morning, he discovered that he had moved backward another day in time.

After several such mornings, he learned that he would be able to prevent a personal tragedy.

He also learned that by doing so, he would reveal a crime he had committed earlier.

He then realized that he would have to pay for that crime once he put things right.

Granted, this is fiction.

But it caused me to recall a conversation with a friend whom I love like a brother.

We were discussing faith and ministries and how personally rewarding they were.

I was relatively new to one such ministry at the time.

My friend posed the question: “Don’t you wish you had started sooner?”

The obvious answer is of course, yes.

But unlike the man in the story, I cannot go back in time and do that.

The journey toward Easter reminds me I never have to look back.

None of us do.

Here is what the Old Testament prophet Isaiah said…

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NET) - “Don’t remember these earlier events; don’t recall these former events. Look, I am about to do something new. Now it begins to happen! Do you not recognize it? Yes, I will make a road in the wilderness and paths in the wastelands.

I like the way Paul put it in his letter to the Philippians…

Philippians 3:13-14 (NET) - Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

But no one put it better than Jesus.

Luke 9:62 (NET) - Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

There is no need for us to dwell on our past.

There is no need to be haunted by missed opportunities.

Not when we have so glorious a future thanks to Jesus.

Even this Holiest of seasons reminds of this.

True, we think of Jesus and all He endured for us.

But the journey did not end at a cross.

Not when there is a vacated tomb beyond it.

Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at https://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, March 20, 2020.

I’ll be back here on Friday, March 27, 2020