Devotions for Disciples

Nothing good happens when you focus on the rearview mirror – especially if you are driving down the road. Of course, you need to glance in the mirror from time to time in order to be aware of the traffic around you, but your focus must be on what is ahead of you. When I was in the youth group, our director, Rob, would say when a good-looking guy or girl crosses in front of your car and you acknowledge their good looks, that is not lust. Lust is when you drive away and take the second look in the rearview mirror. That is another thought for another day. Where I am going today has nothing to do with lust, but it does have a connection to looking backward.

Throughout the month of July, it seemed as if we could set our clocks by the massive thunderstorms that pummeled our area. When I drove to my  physical therapy appointment, I could expect to be driving into a storm or coming out of one. On one particular afternoon, I was able to do both. As I drove out of our town and headed to the next, the storm was ending behind me and building in front of me. I looked into my rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of the sun attempting to break through the storm clouds that lingered, and at the same time, looking through my windshield, the view was ominous and foreboding. The Holy Spirit reminded me of special things that had happened in my life. These spiritual markers were both good and bad: times of rejoicing and times filled with trials and tribulations.

On that particular day, I was reminded of the hundreds, if not the thousands, of mile-markers, some that were absolute miracles, that I have experienced. During the hardest of these, it was often difficult to see the hand of God at work in the situation. The same can be said of those we have traveled with down this road of life. Why cancer? Why car crashes? Why shootings? Why the loss of a job, a marriage, or a home? These are moments that shape our faith and take us to our foundational truth. Much of the time, it is not until we can take the review look that we can see and acknowledge the great mercy of God because only then can we recognize that He was at work in the trial and sustained us all the way. 

In Job 14:7-9 (ESV), we read these words: “For there is hope for a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump dies in the soil yet at the scent of water, it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.” When we look back, we can see the truth. Our life circumstances have cut us down, and parts of us have died, but in due season the freshwater of the Holy Spirt rushes over us, and we are brought back to life.

As I saw the hope of the sun in the clouds behind me, I was reminded that there are things I cannot control in life. Storms will come, and they will leave a marker that will forever be set in my life. But we must keep at the forefront of our thoughts this truth: the rearview look is not a time for us to think about our past with anguish in our hearts. Neither is it a time to live the “what-ifs” of life. In Joshua 4:1-8, God commands the Israelites to cross the Jordan River during flood season, but a flood is no problem for God. He has miraculously stopped the water from flowing so that the people could cross, but then He told them to set markers of remembrance. They were told to carry stones from the river bed and pile them as a memorial on the bank so that when future generations of children would see them and ask what they meant, they could tell the story of God’s deliverance. 

When we allow the stones of remembrance to do their intended work in our lives, we see the masterful hand of God doing what only He can do. If we go back to the book of Job, we are often baffled by a question that God asked His servant. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstonewhile the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38-4-7 ESV). You see, Job wanted answers; after all, he had lost so much and could not see an end to his hurt and pain. In that moment, Job was challenging God’s justice, and God answers Job, not in the harshness that we read in the previous chapters filled with the platitudes and false-wisdom of his supposed friends, but with grace and mercy.  God tells Job that his human heart and mind do not have the ability to comprehend this majestic and complex universe – what would be needed in order to make such a demand. Job wanted a full explanation from God, but instead, God asked Job to trust in His wisdom and character. And that is what Job did.

Rearview looks help us see the times of deliverance from hurt and to celebrate the joys of life. You see, the cross is the most profound and the most foundational spiritual marker — one filled with great anguish and incomprehensible joy. But it is only when all of our despair and anguish has been laid to rest at the foot of the cross that our joy becomes complete. The hope of Heaven has set our path, and in the days when life hurts and our hearts are broken, we must remember we have limited knowledge of the “whys” of this life, but there is a fullness of life waiting for us in the living truth of Jesus Christ. 

Let the markers be set.  A pilot once told me that he learned a life lesson in his early days of training. On any cloudy day, if you fly high enough, you will find that the sun is always shining above the clouds. We can’t always see it from our perspective, but it is. Life in Christ is the same. The storm clouds can grow darker, and hope can be hard to find. It is in those moments, cloudy and dark though they may be, that we need to remind ourselves that the sun is still shining and the Son is still working to carve out a marker just for you.