Day 3127 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Luke 17:32 NIV

To remember demands we look back at a prior time, a different place, a way of life from long ago, a mindset set in what now seems a strange direction in comparison to the direction we’ve been going.

But see, to look back has become a contextual issue that's caused many to make blanket assumptions that are costing them the treasure trove of wisdom that's found only behind us. We've this arrogance that tells us that better days lay only ahead as we believe ourselves upon this constant upward trajectory of endless advancement. So don't look back, they say. Focus ahead. Forge ahead.

Forget the past as it's now simply an antiquated and out of date resource from which nothing can possibly be gleaned that could help us all these years wiser.

And yet here we find a command reflecting an opposing command meant to instill wisdom which might actually be lost among many today. We've such a haughty opinion of ourselves that we think ourselves beyond what's behind. We're too good to have to look back. We're not heading in any direction other than forward, advancing, progressing, progressive to the point of letting past wisdom slip through the cracks we won't acknowledge.

But I find myself in this strange predicament, you see? I've this weight upon my heart, crushing down upon my shoulders, consuming nearly my every thought for weeks now. It all began in this moment in which He reminded me of something long since passed into the past. Why would God keep something on me this long if it wasn't vital for me to learn, to share? But what if it's something that seems counter to the culture from which I'm told to be learning?

Why would God remind me of something that required me to look back if I’m never to look back?

Could it be that that idea is simply something the world’s come up with? This world is the one that demands we not look back. And I contend there are a great many reasons. For one, behind us lie a plethora of mistakes, and well, if we start admitting ours are back there then other people might find themselves also reminded of their imperfections. And that's a no-no. Another reason is that we don't want to have to consider what we're not actually gaining or improving in all this assumption of improvement and success we think we're finding.

And then there's the whole progression of life that mustn't cease, even though we're not actually getting anywhere. That's clearly a truth not appreciated by those who assume they're growing and getting better.

But yet, I cannot escape the realization of the power of our memories. As I've been talking about for days now, God took me back to a place in time to a kid I was in a life that was just better. I was a better person. The world seemed a better place. Happiness wasn't yet relegated to a mere theory. Gratitude was the norm, confining anger and angst to afterthoughts.

Life's flipped. Today feels upside down. Happiness is hard to find while anger never really leaves. Sadness and sorrow are now the constant companions walking alongside many if not all of us. Joy's just an idea, a concept, a passing fancy pursued only by dreamers and losers who aren't willing or able to stay in the race to beat the world to first place at the place they've pointed us toward.

But I miss that younger me and the happiness he had incessantly and instinctively. Miss better days. Miss the lessons I learned and wonder about the many I didn't. And that's what I've been trying to speak toward over the last several days. All of us have lost things, left things, left things unlearned that could have well helped us avoid where we've gone wrong leading to the regrets we've found along the way to this sad and saddening place we’re in today.

Am I wrong for looking back at younger days and yearning for the hope I had back then that I've lost since? Am I to be ashamed for looking behind me to consider what I shouldn't have let go in exchange for all that I shouldn't have sought for? Is it wrong for a person, me, you, anyone to appreciate memories for the beauty they behold to minds now broken and bleeding in the aftermath of many a year misspent along a path mistakenly taken?

Well unfortunately many would say so. They take a verse like this one here in Luke as a command to never ever look back. Remember Lot's wife, she looked back and lost it all. Turned to salt. A pillar stuck in place looking toward the abyss of places that are now no more.

See, God, back in Genesis, had finally had His fill of the wickedness and immorality of a couple towns who then lived assuming immortality but who now live in proverbial infamy. Infamous for the wrath they received because of the deeds they refused to cease. Names now synonymous with destruction demanded by dirty deeds which ought not be done.

A lesson clearly too important to leave unlearned, but oddly enough one that demands we look behind us.

In fact, all of Scripture comes from behind us. Strange that. All of Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. But so too is all of Scripture from a time before us. It was all God-breathed, but in the past. It's behind us in the sequence of how time works. It's antiquated according to some.

But even among those who do consider it the timeless wisdom and priceless roadmap to a home we can't see but don't want to miss, some still hold to this idea that we should never look back. To them I'd ask this, how then can we study Scripture if we don't? How can we learn the lessons offered us in the Bible if we don't read that book written before our lives began? How can we move forward toward Heaven if we don't understand the urgency of leaving behind the hell we've thus far chosen?

See, that's the real lesson in remembering Lot's wife. It's not to never look back. Yes, God did command Lot and his family to just go. Run. Flee. Get out of here. Save yourselves, because you're doing okay and I'm okay with you, but these other heathens, no, I've had it with their nonsense. So boogie. Get to getting. Head out right now and don't look back.

Don't look back. We see it written in black and white in Genesis 19:17 where one of the angels who the Sodomites wanted to sodomize (see the etymology there?) told Lot and his family to "Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!" Don't look back.

But here come the blanket assumptions all because Lot's wife got curious, or confused, or had a sudden realization of something she left behind, or realized she left her home behind and maybe wasn't ready to leave. And in verse 26, she became a pillar of salt. Not something any of us want for ourselves, as it's both common sense to want more than a life of being a pillar of salt, but also because we're commanded to remember Lot's wife.

Now I think we understand the dilemma, though I still don't understand why it is one. Yes, don't look back to a life you now have to leave behind in a place that will be no more. But, He doesn't command us to never learn from the past. And while those two might sound pretty close, the fact is that they're not.

See, what God commanded Lot and his family to do was to leave this place that was about to be destroyed so that they could be saved as they weren't among those who deserved what was coming. That's the command we're asked to abide by as well. To remember Lot's wife. Not that she looked back, but why she looked back.

We can look back at the past. We can appreciate our memories of better days as that is an ability that God has given us after all. We can use those beautiful memories to motivate us to head for the horizon fighting to find a bit of that better once again. We can learn from mistakes we've made, something we should be ecstatic to do so that we don't do the same dumb things all over again.

Looking back isn't the problem. It's letting go of the things God calls us to leave behind.

And that's what I've realized in all this thinking and praying and trying to find words and ways in which to convey what He's had on my heart all this time recently.

I'm not happy with who I've become in many ways. I've spent so much time in recent years glued to a screen keeping up with updates and breaking news like my life depended upon it. I followed social media to the point that it became a compulsive obsession. I've found myself being consumed by the way of life this world has chosen rather than sticking to the beautiful simplicity of the life God planned for me. And I’ve crept through years of trying to figure out the changes I needed to make to find happiness again.

But all those sleepless nights and tear-stained prayers never managed to open my eyes quite like a memory did while driving down the road.

I lost His path along these years trying to follow along with the world around me. And it's broken me. I'm unhappy. I'm ashamed of who I've been and what I've done. I'm tired of living my life spending my time seeking things that don't bring anything truly valuable to my life. I'm worn out, weary of everything worldly, so sick and tired of the status quo that I know He's asking me to let it go.

To walk away. To run away from where I've been recently as where I've been recently will only keep me feeling how I've felt recently. To let go of where I am, no matter how convenient it would be to stay. To run for my life from a way of life that's kept me from living life for too long now.

Cut ties with what isn't working. Flee from the things that are bringing destructing all around. Head for the horizon because the sun is setting on this unfulfilling place I've been, a place I don't want to be anymore.

And maybe you’re in a place that you don’t want to be anymore either.

But maybe He’s been trying to lead us to something better through something we’ve misunderstood all this time. Personally, He's leading me out of this pit of sadness and sorrow and shame and spiritual sickness by reminding me of better times, like those found in that memory that I've referenced every day for days now. And I think that’s why memories exist. He gave us the ability to remember things so that we could look back to find inspiration to look for something better ahead.

And it's that mix that we'll miss if we assume that a verse like this one just says we can never look behind us.

Friends, the past is filled with things we need to learn, need to remember, need to understand. It's laden with wisdom we've never known to look for because we were busy looking at other things all that time. But if we don't look back to better days, we'll lose hope of finding them up ahead. If we don't learn from the past, we will repeat it.

And if we don't sift through the past, we won't know what's bad enough to not be repeated nor what's too beautiful to not be remembered.

Remember Lot's wife. Look back at her story about a woman who looked back toward something God was offering to save her from, only to cost herself that salvation because she couldn't let go of what He was trying to save her from.

God will put it on our hearts to leave things, people, places behind because He knows the danger they pose, the destruction they bring, the death they are. So He calls us to leave, to move, to walk away and to not look back. To not look back at the destruction that’s coming. To not look back to see what you left behind in a place that is going to be destroyed, a place that might be destroying you.

And maybe most importantly, to not look back out of curiosity so as to see God in action, because we needn’t let our faith dissolve into a matter that depends on seeing. We need to trust, to listen, to walk away from the things He calls us to leave behind and to not look back because there’s nothing behind us but death.

Yes, we look back to learn, but some things don’t need to be seen to be understood. And if we can agree that where we are isn't where we want to stay, and if He kindly helps us find that courage to get up and move, to shake the dust that's settled upon our complacent hearts, to cut the ties binding us in place in a place we don't want to be anymore, don't look back.

That’s the message here folks. God is going to accomplish the work He wants done in us through whatever means He so chooses. Be it a memory of a better day reminding you that today ain’t so great or a sudden jolt that sends you running for the hills away from a way of life you don’t realize is killing you, trust Him. Listen to His leadings. And if He moves you to move, move. And once you start moving, don’t look back at what He’s asking you to let go of.

Otherwise, like Lot's wife, you'll never get anywhere.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold