Leave what’s behind you behind you!
By: Tom Wolff
I used to be a fanatic about keeping my mirrors clean. But now – well, I still am! We need them for so much information. The truck driver’s success is hugely dependent upon his or her ability to accurately read the information in the mirrors. Road drivers typically don’t have windows in the back of the cab. But even if you do, you still must master the mirrors.
The first thing to remember about mirrors is that they don’t give you the whole picture. Sometimes you have to piece together in your mind what the mirror isn’t showing you. For instance, when you have to jack the truck into a parking space, you can’t see any of the far side of your trailer. You just have to know from experience where it is. Hint – it’s about 8 ½ feet from the side you’re looking at! Most trucks have blind spots even though the modern mirror placement location out on the fenders has taken care of most of them. Still, it’s good to know when someone is super close to the rear of your rig, drafting. It is critical that we stay aware of the location of everyone around us.
Spiritually, like our truck, we too must be aware of our blind spots. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to be aware of the schemes of our enemy. (2 Corinthians 2:11) Satan will attempt to exploit our every weakness, addiction, and craving. We can be a sitting duck alone on the road. Our challenge is to stay in touch with God, His word, and other believers who can encourage us day to day to stay strong. We can enter a blind spot whenever we fail to invite God into every part of every day.
Our mirrors also keep us centered. They can help us navigate the construction “cattle chute” which is usually super tight and always nerve-wracking. An occasional peek in the mirror lets us know how close we are to the edge. But even there, the best strategy is to focus forward, down the road which keeps our truck centered in the space we have.
Some of you are old enough to remember the song by singer Cher, “If I Could Turn Back Time.” In the song, the singer wishes she could undo hurtful events in the past. You know, get a do-over. We probably all have some of those regrets. The problem is that time is fluid – it is always moving – forward. None of us can turn back time. Many of the people who come to me for counseling are struggling with events that happened many years ago and yet those events are responsible for much pain and struggle in the present.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT) ” . . . I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” It’s not that Paul literally couldn’t remember, in fact, he recounts what lies behind the preceding verses. Paul is saying that he actually can remember the past but he doesn’t allow it to paralyze him or derail him in the present.
Paul is warning us about spending too much time looking in the mirrors. I need to check them constantly in order to manage the space around the truck, but if I spend too much time looking at them, I will crash. Where we’ve been is viewed in the mirrors, but where we’re headed is viewed through the windshield. It’s the same with life. We need to learn from our past, no matter how painful, as it is part of our story. But where we are going is in front of us, and that’s where we need to focus.
Many of us try to live into the future, dragging our past along behind us. We don’t have the capacity to live in both of those worlds. We can’t undo the past, but with God’s help, we can leave the past in the past and write a beautiful ending. It’s what He loves to do! It was for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal 5:1).
