A couple of years ago I did an essay on this but I decided it was time to up date this topic.
When you are driving the front windshield is what you are concerned about the most but you keep an eye on the rear view mirror. We don’t want some issue to sneak up on us and I imagine every driver can remember a time when they hadn’t looked in the rear view mirror in a while and then, WHAM. a big semi truck or worse a police officer is right behind you and maybe you are going a bit too fast. If you don’t have balance between watching the front windshield and the rear view mirror you can crash.
Normally I feel this approach is best in life too. Check the rear view mirror of your life occasionally but don’t let it dominate your future and cause you to alter the good that may be right in front of you. Too many people live in the past to the point that it cripples their ability to move forward and be successful in the future. We all know some one like the 40 year old that hasn’t gotten past the winning touch down that saved the game for his team during his senior year of high school. Then there is the former prom queen that really thought she was going to Hollywood .When that didn’t happen she spent her 20’s and 30’s obsessed with her looks and all her relationships were shallow and went no where. If we lose focus and get out of balance looking forward and back then we can crash too.
As a Christian I know how difficult it can be to forgive our selves for the bad choices we made in the past and it is easy to let that guilt keep us from moving forward.
We all know someone who stepped out and tried a new business or venture of some kind and when it failed they emotionally folded. Instead of looking back on that failure and learning from it they play it over and over in their heads and that keeps them from ever trying again.
Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” It is a good thing for all of us that he didn’t let those words become the focus of his rear view mirror. He went on to have over 1000 patents including the phonograph and electric lamp.
Most of our lives are mundane routine affairs. When I worked for a branch of the Crime Victim’s Board I used to say that it was either feast or famine. I would be sitting at my desk keeping the cobwebs at bay and then suddenly a crisis case appears and I was lucky if I could occasionally get in a full breath. That is what most of our lives are like. We need to be able to take the exceptional moments, whether positive or negative, and file them where we can access them when necessary but not let those moments dominate our day to day lives. We need to keep moving forward and we can’t do that if we are always looking at the past for our emotional support.
The Bible has numerous verses telling us to seek wisdom above all else. Proverbs 3:13 says, “Wisdom is worth more than silver; it brings more profit than gold…” I think the best place to find wisdom, after the Bible of course, is by looking back in our rear view mirror and learning from both the mistakes and the correct choices we made in our life.
However, I do see an exception to this belief. We need to look into our rear view mirror and remember a saner time in this country. We need to remember when women were women and men were men. When parents made life altering decisions for their children and not teachers or elected officials. We need to remember a time when we had leaders that put this country first. After all they were voted into office to represent the people of this great country. We need to look back at time when neighbors knew each other and were there for each other during good times and especially bad times.
As we get older there is a ton of minutia to sort through as we make decisions. As we are doing this we need to “delete” the things that keep us from moving forward. This isn’t always easy but it is the best way to sort out the weeds that can choke our ability to make good choices going forward. I think of it in the same vein as when you are moving to a different location. What better time to go through the closets that hold all of our old “stuff” and get rid of what we don’t need or want as it just takes up space. We don’t need minutia taking up space in our heads either especially when that minutia can cripple us going forward.
So, get out your glass cleaner and wipe off your personal rear view mirror. Then begin to sort and throw out what ever is keeping you from achieving what God has in store for you. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, ‘ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”