Through The Rear View Mirror

  

If you’re looking through the rear view mirror you can’t see what’s in front of you. They made the windshield bigger than the rearview mirror because what’s in front of you is more important than what’s behind. 

–Bill Britt

Well, that pretty much sums up the whole post, might as well just rap it up now. But, as good as that encapsulates the message of what I want to share today, I want to really make sure you get this one; it’s important. We are told in the Bible not to dwell in the past….

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 

–Isaiah 43:18 

Not only should we dwell not on the past, the Scripture says that we should not even remember the former things. Yesterday is history, we don’t live there anymore. Tomorrow is a mystery, we can’t know what is in store. Today is a gift, we didn’t ask for. The past is passed, or has passed if you’re NKJV. Sometimes the old fashioned lingo just goes over the heads of this new generation.

What’s so bad about the past that we have been commanded of God to not even think about it and to put it out of our memory? Don’t we learn from our mistakes? Does God not want us to remember the good times we’ve had? 

Good questions, thanks for asking, (I have no idea who I’m saying that to). God cares for you, He cares about your life and what you’ve been through. But, the past has more effect on us for ill than for good. We can easily get discouraged when we look back upon our lives and think… “That’s all I’ve done with my life? What’s it all for? Am I even making a difference? Does anybody even care about what I do? Would anyone notice if I just disappeared, fell off the face of the earth?”. We get discouraged when look back our lives, mainly because we are selfish and ambitious by nature. When we look back, we will always find mistakes, things we did wrong, things we should have done or shouldn’t have done. What we have accomplished is never good enough for us. As Christians, we want to do our best for Christ, and when we look back at what we’ve done, it never seems like enough.

This is where the evil in the past comes into play. Did you know that the devil lives in your past. Satan himself, or one of his demons lives in your past waiting for you to look at all of your mistakes. Because when we look back, we never notice the good we’ve done: for just one mistake seems to cancel out a lifetime of goodwill. It’s in those times that the demons start whispering their lies into your mind: “You’re worthless!”, “no one loves you!”, “no one cares!”, “your life’s not worth living!”. Believe me, those are lies. 

God loves you, and if you need a more tangible love, I love you. You’re special, you’re wanted, you belong. The past will tell us that we’ve messed too badly. It will say that we can’t fix our lives. Suicide is so popular today even among older individuals because without purpose, without love, life’s just not worth living. The past compels us many times to eliminate our future. If we can’t fix our life, then we should end it. Don’t listen to the past, don’t dwell in it, don’t even remember it.

Conversely, the past and it’s good memories can be as evil as its bad memories. If you’ve ever heard the phrase: too heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good; well, there is also such a thing as being too earthly minded that you are no heavenly good.

The past is of this world, it happened on earth and it will stay on earth, but the future is of heaven and its glory, today is a day to live for the future. Look ahead to the day of Redemption, not behind to condemnation. If we’re too focused on the world we are of no use to the Kingdom of Heaven to win souls for Christ.

WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM TO BRING A MESSAGE TO YOU THEOLOGIANS–

If you are too heavenly minded, debating about God and His nature, His commands and His Scripture, you are no earthly good, no good for the Church and God’s people. What does it matter what God was thinking or what He might have meant by something? If He said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel”. That’s exactly what we are called to do: end of story.

NOW, BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM–

Dwelling in the past makes us want to give up, it discourages us, makes us grow weary in well doing. But God will not allow us to give up easily, He knows that perseverance is good for us and that if we keep pressing on we shall win a crown of glory to lay at His feet.

I’m glad that every time I threw in the towel the Holy Spirit through it back.

–Bill Britt

God’s on your side, He doesn’t want you to give up. God loves you, and I love you.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

Yesterday: A Tale Of Procrastination

Today is a day called yesterday. Because I am currently writing this in today, which is your yesterday, you will read this post in what will be tomorrow; yet for you it will be today. 

Have you every heard of circular reasoning? Both the answers yes and no are correct. Yes, you have heard of it. No, there is no such thing as circular reasoning. It is just a term used by people as an insult to others, but it doesn’t really mean anything at all.  

To reason is to think, to understand, to comprehend, and determine justice by process of logic.

If it was a legitimate term, the application would mean, reasoning that is complete and flawless, ever moving in a single, unending, continuous line of thought. This, is impossible. 

Controversial Statement:

To say that the universe created itself because it had to, is not circular reasoning.

Simplistic, (yet surprisingly lengthy), answer:

It is not circular reasoning because it has a difinitive starting point and ending point, neither of which can, without interference, link back to the other. If I say that the universe created itself because it had to, I am really saying that the origin of the universe is as follows:

• There was nothing 
• The nothing matrixed something
• The something had to exist because it was necessary for the nothing to become something

Definitive starting point, (nothing), links abstractly and beyond all reason to definitive ending point, (something). There is no link back from the something to the nothing, it is not uncreated, nor can we repeat the so-called “cycle”, by returning to nothing without it being more than reiteration. 

What the large majority call circular reasoning is really either nonsense or something they cannot wrap their minds around: like the title of my post. So, know that what is to follow is not what some would call “circular reasoning”, but rather, a new and interesting perspective for you to take in the way you view the days you have.

To procrastinate is to put off, delay, or postpone. So, if “Yesterday” is the title of my post, how could it be a story about delaying or postponing? Is it retrospect? Surely not. Why would I choose a title so blatantly ironic just to loophole out of the topic at hand by falling on the obvious cop-out? 

Remember, I’m here to bring a different perspective to you, my readers, so whatever I write is written to help you view life differently.

Yesterday… It seems like only tomorrow when I first saw you. Come to think of it, it was tomorrow. People don’t seem to realize, but we get to see each and every yesterday long before it becomes today or even tomorrow. The choices we make in today, and the plans we make for tomorrow effect what goes on in our yesterdays.

Strange thing about yesterdays: they are always looked back upon, but never looked forward to. What we put off until tomorrow will eventually end up in our yesterdays. And it’s sad that the reminiscence of yesterday can go as far back as you can remember, and yet memories of today and tomorrow only last for one, solitary day. The things we will regret, we could prevent. 

We hold the power to change our yesterdays. To do what we don’t want to remember in yesterday that we put off until tomorrow, today. If it keeps getting delayed, it will only make your todays and yesterdays emptier and emptier.

No one ever crashes because they were looking through the windshield, but, often people crash because they were looking in the rearview mirrors. Too concerned about what has already passed, they are not aware of what is coming ahead. 

Let us remember today… Or, rather, let me remember today and let you remember tomorrow… Which is your today, to not put off until tomorrow what we could have done today. Let our todays be successful and productive, that our yesterdays would be fulfilled and we would be satisfied with how we lived out our yesterdays.

Confused yet? I hope not, or at least not so much that you missed my message. Live every day in a way that you wouldn’t mind seeing in retrospect for the rest of your life. And watch for your yesterdays coming on, plan for them before they get here, so that you will be prepared.

God’s gift of yesterday is life, history, and thanksgiving. Be thankful for the days you have, the life you’ve been given, and set an example for others to follow. As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist