Looking forward, not back

"No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).

You cannot be successful in going forward if you are preoccupied with looking behind you. During spring planting, if a farmer spends too much time looking out the back window of the cab, he will have a horribly messed up field to contend with at harvest. A driver on the highway who is distracted by what is happening in his rearview mirror will eventually end up in the ditch. You can’t maintain a straight, safe path if you are constantly twisting around to look behind you.

Jesus warned His followers about the dangers of looking back. When we join Jesus on the straight path to heaven, we are required to leave behind the sinful pleasures that lead to hell. But while there is a sense of relief in leaving some things behind, others are not so easily abandoned. In Genesis chapters 18 & 19, we are told how God destroyed Sodom. The residents of that city were thoroughly despicable—not even ten righteous people could be found within the city walls. God warned Lot to take his family and flee the city without looking back. However, Lot’s wife had apparently enjoyed her life in Sodom, and she made the mistake of disobeying God by looking back with regret on what she was leaving behind—that moment of weakness cost her her life.

You can’t make straight rows with a plow if you don’t focus on what’s ahead. You can’t get through traffic safely if you don’t keep focused on what’s ahead. And you can’t expect to stay on the narrow path to heaven unless you keep your focus on the future that Jesus is beckoning you towards. Jesus said, The way that leads to destruction is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it (Matthew 7:13-14). To look back at the sinful life Jesus wants you to leave behind is to risk stepping from the narrow road to heaven and stumble back onto the broad road that leads to hell.

Jesus always kept looking forward. Even when the days ahead included abandonment, ridicule, beatings and crucifixion, Jesus did not look back to the past. He kept His eyes on the goal beyond the cross—a bright future where He would be raised from the dead and crowned King of the universe, a wonderful future where we would be freed from sin and the fear of death. Knowing that rest in heaven awaits us at the end of the straight and narrow road, we are encouraged to look forward and leave the past behind.