by Pastor Paul Clark, President of Lutherans For Life of Michigan
Why is the windshield of your car so much larger than the rear-view mirror?
Isn’t it obvious? It is more important to see what is on the road ahead of you than what is behind you.
Yet we often spend more time looking back than looking ahead. “Nostalgia,” we call it. This is what drives many searches on eBay or other venues for items from the past, whether it’s a glass or dish that your mother or grandmother once had or an old toy or game that has long since gone out of circulation. It is the reason that my study, along with the many volumes of Luther’s works and countless other theological and historical books, is also populated by a miniature replica of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and another of Godzilla. (Oh, yeah, I love my monsters!) Just as I still love The Hardy Boys books. We all appear to have a fondness for those things that revive memories of our younger days, even though we tend to soften and sentimentalize those memories.
As a boy growing up in the 1960s, and rather a nerdy one at that, my favorite show was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. I could hardly wait each week to see what new danger Admiral Nelson, Captain Crane, and the good crew of the nuclear submarine Seaview would encounter. From combating enemy rogue agents who planned to undermine our nation to waging fierce battles with monstrous creatures from the deep, even to defending the earth from aliens from outer space—you could always count on the Seaview to come through for the good of mankind!
But another show that I fondly remember watching, created by Irwin Allen, the same producer who created Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, was The Time Tunnel. The plot centered on a top-secret U.S. government effort to build an experimental time machine in a huge, hidden underground complex in Arizona. It was called the Time Tunnel because of its appearance as a long, elliptical passageway. Two scientists entered the time tunnel and were cast about in history, eyewitnesses to events such as the sinking of the Titanic, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the eruption of Krakatoa, Custer’s Last Stand, and the Battle of the Alamo. The show was canceled before the two scientists, Doug and Tony, could safely be brought back to the present. I imagine that Doug and Tony are still trapped in the past, tumbling around somewhere within those infinite corridors of time.
Likewise, we may be trapped by memories of the past. We may not mind when these are the soothing memories of calm and lovely summer days, romping in the rich meadows of our lost youth or childhood friendships or delightful family vacations. But for some, there is persistent pain, perhaps trauma, in their memories. There may lie deeply buried guilt. There may dwell the aching hollowness of regret over mistakes made or hurt inflicted on others. The sting, and worse yet, the bitterness of what others may have done to us also hovers beneath the surface. The past haunts us far more than any apparition in a ghost story.
We can easily become entombed by guilt and loss and darkness.
Cher once sang, “If I could turn back time … If I could find a way!” But we can’t. There is no actual time tunnel. We can’t fix things by re-entering the past. We can’t fix things by ignoring the past, either. So, what do we do?
The Apostle Paul had every reason to look back with shame and regret. But he didn’t ignore the past. He confronted it. He had viciously persecuted the Church of Christ. He had boasted of his own righteousness and took great pride in his high standing among men. “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” Then Paul goes on to confess, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:4-7).
By God’s grace, Paul took his eyes off the rear-view mirror and gazed out through the windshield in front of him. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
The future lies before us. But the view through the windshield is far from clear. It is like driving toward a magnificent mountain that is only gradually emerging from the patchy and persistent fog of everyday life. It is there, but it is distant, and it is blurred and partially obscured, and there are times when we are not quite certain we will make it. But we’d sure like to get there! We can only imagine the rapturous view from the mountain’s summit.
But Jesus says He IS the Way. And united with Christ in our Baptism, we walk this road with Him. By no power of our own, but through the sheer grace and mercy of our loving and saving God, we will arrive at the mountain.
Of course, we wish we could know what lies ahead of us. I’m not talking about heaven. That is a certainty for all who believe in Christ. But what will we encounter on the way? What dangers, toils, and snares? We wish we knew what lies along the road. But God says no to that. Engaging in sorcery and witchcraft, palm reading and crystal balls, horoscopes and tea leaves—these things are forbidden to the faithful child of God. They entice the powers of darkness. We are called to walk by faith, one day at a time, with trust in God to guide and provide.
But we can’t help but wonder what’s ahead, can we? Even children wonder about what their future will bring. In the words of that old Doris Day song, “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see. Que sera, sera. What will be, will be.”
Yes, but with a caveat. Que sera, sera. But your future is safe and secure in the Lord’s hands, not the dead hands of chance and blind fate. You are in the hands of the One who gave His only Son unto death on a cross that you may live. And He now works all things for your good.
We can’t forget the past. As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Neither can we escape the past. It is still there, somewhere behind us in that time tunnel in which we exist. There is nothing wrong with a little nostalgia, but we can’t live in the past. For some of us, we may not even wish to revisit the past. But whatever the past has held for us, however pleasant the memories or however painful the memories—whatever grievous sins we have committed, whatever damage has been done to us in body and souls, or by us to others—we can overcome the past—by the power of Jesus and His resurrection. We have a new identity acquired in Holy Baptism, giving us eyes that focus on Jesus. We have the ongoing purification of God’s Word, for it washes us squeaky clean of every stain of sin and emboldens us to push onward in our often-perilous journey.
While driving, is it necessary to glance in the rear-view mirror at times to see what lies behind us? Of course! But if we keep our eyes there, we will drive right off the road or crash into another car. We must look ahead, and with the Word of God steering us, the eyes of faith can penetrate the murky fog. The mountain looms, gorgeous and majestic in its grandeur. Soon, Mount Zion, in all its glory, will be our new home. Until then, we still fall under the spell of the shadows of the past. Some are good. Some are not. BUT ONE THING WE DO: We strain forward to what lies ahead; we press onward toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Philippians 3:13-14).