Travelling Back in Time

Mary and I were driving down a road near our home, and we were delighted to see a deer gracefully leap over a fence, cross the road in a smooth run, and then beautifully glide over another fence. We stopped and watched it as it ran out of site into a nearby forest. It was a sight worth remembering.

In fact, every time since then, when we pass that spot on the road, I make a quick but intense scan of the area, hoping to see that deer again. But to expect to see a deer cross the road at the same place every time I pass by is expecting too much. Nevertheless, I keep looking, and hoping. I've even considered parking there for a while, hoping it might turn up.

But life goes on. The deer has things to do other than cross the road every time I come along. It's feeding places change, and by its cautious nature, it moves a great deal for self preservation.
But I keep looking, and hoping...

Isn't that just like human nature. When we've had a nice experience, we want to go back, to experience it again. And human nature is much the same when it comes to the things of God. We somehow attach a romantic element to that special place where we met God and had a wonderful and powerful experience with Him. And now, perhaps years later, we keep looking back at that place; that experience, hoping and looking for the same joy and thrill of closeness with God.

But life goes on! God has other experiences and growth for us, yet we get stalled in our Christian growth, looking backward, rather than forward. God spoke to the prophet about Israel on this very issue, in Jer. 7:23-24:

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, `Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.' Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward."

Later, the Apostle Paul gave instruction to the young preacher Timothy. He told him to get on with it, keep studying, don't let your brain go flat, keep progressing. Look at 1 Tim. 4:13-15:

"Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all."

And even more clearly, Paul told one church not to depend on the experiences and thrills of the past, but to get on with it. He used himself as an example in Phil. 3:13-14:

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

There's certainly no harm in going back and looking at old landmarks, with appreciation to God. But looking at old landmarks will never change the present world in which you live.

But, if you catch a new glimpse of God where you are, you could help change the world around you! Reach forward!