The Quintessential Rearview Mirror

Friday, September 30, 2022

The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.  I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.  Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:  The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”  The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.  So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.  Lamentations 3:19-26

When you’ve either been through, or going through a rough patch (COVID, War, Divorce, Prison, or a thousand other nightmares), the tendency is usually to stare into one of two places – the road ahead, or the rearview mirror.  To be glued to the rearview mirror is to hold on to the anguish and pain of the past, embracing the rough patch as the future.  To dwell on the past means you are driving blindly into the future, and we know where failing to keep your eyes on the road will lead.  (Laws against texting while driving were placed on the books for a reason!).

However painful the rearview mirror can be, at times we must shoot a quick look there, to be sure of two things:

1.    We are aware of what we left behind.

2.    We are still progressing away from the road that led to the rough patch.

If knowledge is power, running on a low battery is a dumb thing.  It is foolish to not remember what got you into the rough patch, or the dangers that might lead you back there.  Real wisdom is the common sense that puts knowledge (good or evil) to good use.  As the wise person once said:  if we fail to remember the mistakes of the past, we are doomed to repeat them in the future.

Even an ostrich in a hurricane has enough sense to look above the storm to chart his course.

For You Today

So, to be (at least) as wise as a bird-brain, use the rearview mirror to poke your head out of the hole in the ground so you can get above the harsh conditions, and get a bead on where you need to go.  In short, look above, you’ll find plenty of answers as the Lord leads you out of the rough patch, even if the road seems rocky.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Has God Forgotten to Be Gracious? and Hard Times & Growing Churches   

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

NEW!

[1] 

January 1, 2020

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.  And the sea was also gone.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.    I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people!  He will live with them, and they will be his people.  God himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.”  And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”  And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”  And he also said, “It is finished!  I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End.   To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.  Revelation 21:1-6

There is a sense within that resonates with new.  Everyone loves the thought of replacing the old clunker we drive with something that smells fresh off the assembly line.  We would prefer a fresh hairstyle instead of the bad hair month in which we dwell.  A new recipe, new friend, new space, new job, or a new anything gives a sense of getting a chance to start fresh; who doesn’t love having a clean slate (as long as we can keep the good stuff we gained with the old slate).

If you look at John the Revelator’s metaphors, new soars out from the throne in every direction.  The “old” heavens and earth are history.  The sea (representing chaos and danger) are gone.  In their place we see the gift of New Jerusalem, a holy city, as fresh, innocent, and beautiful as a new bride.  The city is a gift from God Himself, Who is in the center of the city, guarantee of His desire to live with the people who dwell there.  It is a new thing, and it plucks the strings of joy for anyone who has seen the reality of the fading nature of earthly beauty and strength…and even breath.

New is something to which we all aspire; yet we cling to the old with a ferocity of which lions and wolves can only dream.  It is fear of the unknown that makes us cling to what we know, even in its present pain, rather than face uncertainty.  But even our clinging link with the past is a wisp of smoke that vanishes when we lean our full weight on it.  Nothing in this life outlasts death.  But the promise of God is that nothing in death can persist in His presence; even death gives way to new life. 

So the promise of all things new is a change, not merely (or even) of location from planet earth to some ethereal, heavenly cloud-walking, harp-strumming tedium of unsmiling, unfeeling, tea party-like formality of servitude around the throne; this promise is the one always new reality of joy unspeakable and full of glory! 

That’s how the apostle Peter described God’s new life:

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.                1 Peter 1:8

For You Today

Even just contemplating the notion of stepping out of the familiar into the unknown causes one to draw a deep breath; it’s hard to let go of what gives us comfort and stability.  But it’s hard to receive anything new if our hands are locked in a death grip on what we think we possess.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©