Looking Ahead

The day after a big basketball loss was terrible!  Coach would always pull out those tell-tale charts to remind us of fouls made, shots missed, and careless turnovers.  There was no denying or trying to excuse any of it -- it was there in black and white.  Singularly and meticulously he would point out what we did wrong, and we would consider how the game could have been played differently ... and perhaps won.

 

Looking back at past blunders is rarely fun.  The beginning of a new calendar year generally brings a new "frame of mind."  We may shrug off New Year's resolutions or goal setting, but somehow we can't shake the New Year mindset.  The clean slate, fresh piece of paper mentality is challenging and unconsciously we gear up to "turn over that new leaf."  No surprise, that’s Satan's cue to turn our minds backwards, ruining our new thinking patterns. Well, shot charts certainly are discouraging, even depressing, but the surety of God's grace and mercy is most likely kept in check by the memory of yesterday's blunders and bloopers.  Oswald Chambers puts it like this: "But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present."  The gracious Truth is God is our Security for today and for tomorrow, as well as from the gripping past.  Psalm 25:4-5 remind us the key is to keep our eyes fixed, focused on Christ, looking neither right nor left nor behind lest we  stumble and fall.  He is faithful to show us His ways, teach us His  paths, guide us in His truth ... for He is our God and Savior, and our hope is in Him always.