“be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery..” Deut. 6:12 (NASB)

“Do not call to mind the former things, Or consider things of the past. Behold, I am going to do something new,” Is. 43:18-19a (NASB)

“Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:13-14 (NASB)

January brings on the sense of renewal. It is the time of year that we are looking at our lives, figuring out how to improve them, to start new habits and perhaps drops some old ones. It is also a time when we re-set our focus on life goals and build a determination to re-set our lives in general. We may be trying to re-boot from bad experiences, trials and tribulations, health issues, financial troubles, any variety of things. The Isaiah and the Philippians scriptures above are often repeated during this New Year frenzy as words of inspiration and hope for what the future may hold for us. I have used them for myself more than once.

But one morning, I was making the bed and I remembered that the new year began with a concern for the residents of Los Angeles, my granddaughter included, who were and are still in fear of their safety because of the massive wild fires out there. Almost instantly, the thought came to me how easily we put things into the rear view mirror of our memory banks and move on to the next big thing. It seemed that the news cycle was on top of this story and then all the sudden, it was taken over by politics, shootings etc. Now it falls somewhere down on number 3 – 5 in the list of headlines to be covered. It made me pause and wonder what and when do we need to put in the rear view mirrors of our lives. I was reminded of both the Deuteronomy text and the Isaiah and Philippian texts almost simultaneously.

The purpose of a rear view mirror is to help a driver be aware of any dangers that may be coming our way from behind us because while we are driving it is unsafe for us to completely turn around and look at what is happening in the road. It also helps us to determine if a lane shift is advisable or not. In other words, the rear view mirror is a practical aid to our driving and should never be completely ignored. It also helps us to see what we have already passed and over time, the miles begin to melt away as we move forward on our journey. On a long trip, the rear view mirror is the friendly reminder that it’s not as long as it has been. However, if all our attention is on the rear view mirror we will be completely unaware of the changes and dangers in the road ahead of us. I can remember in my driver’s education classes and even when my Dad took me out for driving lessons, that I was always told to keep shifting my vision from the rear view and side view mirrors to the road ahead and be alert for things popping up in my peripheral vision as well, so that I could be fully aware and engaged in my driving.

Some might look at the texts above and say that God is contradicting Himself. I think God is telling us how to drive through this life. Certain things we must always be aware of and remember; His Word, His promises, His commands like the way I was told to shift my vision constantly to take in the whole scope of my driving route. Other things are not meant to be dwelled upon. The sins forgiven comes to the forefront of my mind. How often do we keep dwelling on what we did in our former days that God has since forgiven? It is not a longing to return, but it is the bemoaning and blame gaming we do that prevents us from moving forward in the victory God has given us. This was Isaiah and Paul’s statement to their audiences. In effect, they are saying we can’t change the past but we trust that God has resolved it in our confession and faith in salvation so that we no longer entangle ourselves or prevent ourselves from living in the fullness and blessings God has given us in restoring our souls. Yet there is the delicate balance of remembering the lessons learned and so we should keep checking our proverbial rear view mirrors to make sure that we are not letting something creep up on us unaware. I believe that is what we see in the Deuteronomy text. That is the delicate balance I am speaking about; we should never forget where God brought us from but we can’t dwell in the past if we plan to reach our final destination, our eternal home.