Things usually are designed as they are for a specific reason. “Form follows function,” the architectural and industrial design adage declares. The function or purpose of a chair is to support people sitting on it. After that, the furniture designer can decide what form the chair should take. The function of a car is to transport riders from one place to another. Once that purpose is achieved, automotive designers can figure out how to visually impress potential buyers.
Form follows function. This principle came to mind while reading an entry in pastor and author Tony Evans’s Kingdom Man devotional book. He observed, “Do you know why a car’s windshield is bigger than its rearview mirror? Because where you are going is more important than where you’ve been.”
Simple wisdom, but profound. Unless you’re backing out of your garage or driveway, trying to steer your car while staring into the rearview mirror would be utter foolishness. Not to mention extremely dangerous, especially if you’re on the highway. Keep looking ahead! And yet, persisting to hold a rearview perspective is how many people are living their lives.
These folks let memories and regrets from the past dominate their days, coloring their present and shaping their future. I regard it as the “woulda, coulda, shoulda syndrome.” “If I would have done that, then this wouldn’t have happened.” “I could have chosen to do that; then I wouldn’t be where I am now.” “I should have decided to do (whatever) instead of what I did – then everything would have been different.”
Understandably, there’s not one of us who if given the opportunity wouldn’t change some key events or decisions in our past. The person who says, “I wouldn’t change a single thing about my life,” is either in denial or unrealistic. We all have regrets to some extent. But the simple fact is we can’t change the past. Time machines don’t exist, and even if they did, changing even a slight detail might have catastrophic consequences. Science-fiction writers call it “the butterfly effect.”
The best we can do is learn from the past and strive to do better in the present and time yet to come. In sports they say to be successful, a baseball pitcher or quarterback in football must have a short memory. They can’t dwell on the pitch just thrown that went over the fence for a home run, or the pass that was intercepted during the last drive. They must ignore the mistake and move on to the next pitch or play.
Pastor Evans added this comment: “I’m not saying yesterday is a bad conversation topic, but you don’t want to get stuck there. Yesterday’s victories will not carry you through today. Yesterday’s defeats should not dominate tomorrow.”
I think this is why the Bible has such forward-thinking focus. Even in Genesis, the Bible’s first book, there are many references to forthcoming events, biblical “types” that foreshadow God’s actions in the future. The Old Testament includes a series of prophetic books. And the last book of the Bible, Revelation, is filled with prophesies yet to come.
The apostle Paul was a man whose life could have been ruined by “rear view mirror living.” A zealous Pharisee and acclaimed religious leader, he had eagerly persecuted early Christians, even gladly spectating at the stoning of the apostle Stephen. After his dramatic Damascus Road conversion, Paul never forgot what he had done, always marveling at the incredible forgiveness, grace and mercy of God.
However, rather than dwelling on his past, he was able to write, “…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
Apparently somewhat of a sports fan, he often used athletic metaphors. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 he wrote, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize…. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
While the apostle does not comment specifically on looking backward, he certainly understood that winning racers can’t be concentrating on portions of the course they’ve already passed. In a similar way, to live in a way that honors God we must learn to let go of the past – its failures and pain, as well as its successes and joys – as we pursue what the Lord has for us now and the days to come.
If anyone has a clear view of the past, it’s God. Still, He gives us this promise: “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). He can take our past, even in wrecked form, and make it functional for a glorious future.
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