DON'T LOOK BACK

"The angels said to Lot and his wife, ‘Flee for your life, do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley or you will be consumed!’ (Gen. 19.17)… but Lot’s wife, who was behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt." This story, told about 1900 years before the birth of Christ, seems so farfetched yet first century historian, Josephus, wrote that he had observed it too. He wrote: “Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. I have seen it with my own eyes, and it remains to this day.” (The Antiquities, 1-11-4).

The Bible records that Lot's wife was at some distance behind him (which I find interesting) and she did the unthinkable, she disobeyed. Even though she had been warned, as Eve also in the Garden of Eden, she looked back…and she was gone forever. I would offer three dangers that people expose themselves to when they ‘look back’. In looking back people tend to romanticize the past, that is to say, the past was so much better than it was. Second, people can catastrophize the past and make the past worse than it ever was (I hear this frequently in divorce scenarios). Third, people sensationalize the past and talk about their history in a way that is nowhere close to reality (I hear people talk about their church’s history in this manner). I am reminded of something Churchill once wrote, "We shape our dwellings and afterwards, they shape us." Jesus only makes passing reference to this story when he says, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17.32). Jesus uses this story as a reminder that his second coming will come as quickly as the judgment which came on Lot’s wife. Lot’s wife represents anyone who is fascinated by and wedded to the way things used to be or, who are more than certain that their way is the right and only way.

Paul understood how easy it is for anyone to look back, for whatever reason. To the Philippians he wrote, “… This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”(Phil. 3:13,14). The answer to this common life reality Paul councils, “I cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10.5). Final thoughts, it is easy to look back—don’t beat yourself up if you do this from time to time. Second, there is a time for reflecting, especially over a serious matter but these times should not be done alone but with a trusted friend and, be given a specific concluding time line. And third, I have been helped by something Bill Johnson once said, “When your memories outnumber your dreams you are beginning to die.”