Jesus said, “Anyone who begins to plow a field but keeps looking back is of no use in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62 NCV
These may seem like pretty harsh words from Jesus. I mean, where is his compassion in this verse? But it’s there, and when you truly know His and God’s heart they really make perfect sense. Let me explain.
When I was a kid we had a very small yard, so our elderly neighbor took the fence down and allowed us to use her yard too. It had two parches of grass on either side of a long cement walk to the alley. There were galvanized washposts down both sides to hang her washline on. One day I was outside playing and she was watering her flowers and she decided to squirt me with the hose. I started to run around and laugh with her chasing me. We were having a great time, until I turned around to see where she was as I was running. When I turned back around I smacked headfirst into one of the washposts. I hit it so hard it threw me backward and hit my head on the ground. Now I had a lump the size of an egg on my forehead and a lump on the back of my head. It knocked me so silly, I didn’t even cry. She felt so bad, she cried! Needless to say, neither of us forgot that day, we talked about it often.
But the lesson I learned from it wasn’t until much later when it finally “hit” me the meaning of Jesus’ words. When I was running around and trying to avoid the spray of the hose I was keeping my eyes on Mrs. Grube. But when I lost sight of her and I kept running but turned around to look back is when disaster happened. And it became totally clear to me, that Jesus was giving a cautionary warning. Once we begin to follow Him we need to keep our eyes on Him, not on any of the other things around us, especially the temptation to look back and keep running forward. When we do that we hit a lot of washposts and walls and not only does it bring hurt and disappointment, but it can sideline us for a bit and when that happens we aren’t able to continue fulfilling our given purpose. And God is always calling us to follow Him onward to the things He has called us to.
You may have noticed yesterday I forgot to write a devotion. As soon as I realized it, the enemy began to put thoughts of regret and guilt in my mind. I prayed and thanked the Lord for His forgiveness and almost immediately today’s verse came to mind and the washpost. I had a choice, either I could begin to look back at something I couldn’t change and lose my focus. Or I could keep my eyes on Jesus and follow Him to all the wonderful things He has prepared for me to achieve with Him. Whenever you have a challenge, a set back or a failure don’t look back at what could have been. Instead, look back to the One who already knows the way.
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