Seeing Through the Windshield, Not the Rearview Mirror

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. 

God’s Unique Plan for Every One of Us

Have you ever wondered how you got to where you are now from where you were years ago, even as a child or a young person? The course of life is never what we expect, and often we encounter twists and turns we could never have imagined. If you’ll indulge me briefly, I’d like to use myself as an example.

 

I’ve often thought that if I were to write a book about the path my life has taken, I’d give it the title, “You Can’t Get There from Here.” Growing up in New Jersey, I headed southwest to attend a college in Houston, Texas. At the time I had no plans of pursuing a writing career but was fortunate to have an English instructor who thought differently. She offered encouragement, saying she saw promise in me as a writer and even urged me to enter an essay contest, which I happened to win.

 

That prompted me to change my major to English. However, envisioning having to poetically ponder flowers and trees or study the likes of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Lord Byron, I determined instead to find a school that offered a strong journalism curriculum. That made Columbus, Ohio the next stop on my itinerary.

 

Journalism and I fit together like the proverbial hand in glove; two professors in particular impressed upon me the art of newswriting along with the virtues of objectivity, fairness and balanced reporting. (That was before modern journalists decided such things aren’t necessary.) I took only one class in photojournalism as an undergrad, but as a graduate teaching assistant my assignment was to teach…photojournalism. That year I learned as much about the craft as the students I was teaching to load raw film into canisters, process exposed film, print photos and master various skills in those bygone days before digital cameras.

 

Upon graduating, my intention to get my first job on a metropolitan daily newspaper was cast aside. My only job offer came from a community newspaper in a Columbus suburb. So, instead of being pigeon-holed as a copy editor, police beat reporter or even an obituary writer, my responsibilities as editor were wide-ranging. They included covering city government, local schools and the school board, high school sports and the community theater, writing editorials, columns and features, doing engagement and wedding announcements, obituaries – and lots of photography.

 

Did I mention I met my wife and we started our family together there?

 

That diverse experience opened doors for other opportunities, including a brief stint on a suburban daily newspaper, back to Houston to work as editor of a much larger community newspaper. There I gained experience not only on the editorial side but also the business side of publishing a newspaper, which prepared me for subsequent ministry roles in the business and professional world after we moved to Chattanooga.

 

Most important, God used each stop to advance my spiritual pilgrimage, which ultimately has made all the difference in my becoming – and continuing to become – the person I am today. Early in my walk with Jesus Christ, I came across a passage that seemed to sum up my life’s meandering course: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

 

I could not have planned out the ways God would direct me. In fact, I’m glad I couldn’t because my life certainly wouldn’t have turned out as it has. Another verse I have embraced is Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” 

 

A fulfilling life, I’ve learned, is not a passive one, sitting on a stump waiting for things to happen. We have to take initiative when opportunities present themselves, but ultimately the outcome rests in the Lord’s hands. Many times I thought I knew what needed to happen, and when it didn’t, I felt disappointment, even discouragement. But in retrospect, I came to appreciate the truth of Romans 8:28, “and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Recovery groups often use the so-called “serenity prayer” to encourage participants, but in a real sense, it encapsulates a healthy way to view and understand our lives as they unfold: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We have our part; God has His, and together we can create a life that brings us joy and gives Him much glory.