Walking Backwards

Imagine for a moment a city sidewalk, with people, lampposts, stores, a trash can here and there. You have walked down streets like that at various times throughout your life. You may bump into a fellow walker, or graze a lamppost if there is a crowd, but most of the time it is just an uneventful stroll. You may be out for a walk or perhaps headed somewhere with a purpose. In any case, it is a common activity you can do without thinking about it.

What if, however, you decided to change the plan today? What if you decided to do something which made no sense, something totally illogical? What if today you decided to take the same walk backwards? You would certainly get an excellent view of the places you had been, the things you passed. You could watch the faces of the people following you, decidedly puzzled at your behavior. There is just one major problem: you can’t see where you are going. You will bump into people and objects that you can’t see. You might fall off the curb at the next intersection since you can’t see it coming up behind you. Walking backwards might be somehow entertaining for a brief period of time, but it would soon put you into trouble or create problems of any of a variety of descriptions. It just doesn’t make sense. It is something that a child might do for amusement, with friends around to guide or confuse him. Parents, particularly mothers, have a reputation for having eyes in the back of their heads. Children often feel this is true. The fact that children may believe it and mothers may claim it, doesn’t make it true. Walking backwards in reality does not make sense for a normally responsible adult.

Although you wouldn’t think of doing something as stupid as walking down a busy city sidewalk backwards, it is not unthinkable that you might be walking through life backwards. We are constantly told to have a goal, a dream, a plan to take you forward through life. We have to keep our eyes on the prize, whether short-range or long, otherwise we can’t arrive at our destination, right? While that is the way to navigate through life, whether on a city sidewalk or anyplace else, too often people do not do that with their personal or professional life.

In the professional arena, getting ahead is the name of the game. Onward and upward is the way to professional success. There are times when someone may decide they like where they are and decide to stay there. I once had a friend who worked for AT&T and enjoyed it. He lived in a small city and was a highly regarded repair technician. He was always up to date with latest improvements and changes and was well known throughout the community. On several occasions, he was offered the opportunity for promotion and more money. He turned the offers down each time because he enjoyed the work, the city where he lived and the limited opportunities that were there. He had found his niche and enjoyed it. Most of us, however, are not like my friend. We want to move forward. We also know people who look backwards in their jobs. They talk about past successes, pa st accomplishments, people and places they have been and known. They may not realize it, but they are trying to live backwards. In doing so, they have stopped moving forwards.

On the personal side, we see people who are always looking back. Too often this comes in terms of trying to manage their relationships with family or friends. Where it can come to an ugly head is in an argument with a spouse or child or friend. This is where the subject changes from handling the problem in the now and bringing up past offenses, past mistakes, things that have no bearing on the current problem. They are used as weapons to sting and hurt and maim the other person. Imagine a husband and wife in an argument when, instead of resolving the immediate cause, they start hurling memories at each other. These memories may have nothing to do with what started the problem. Things like, “Well, ten years ago you …” and “This is how you were when …”. God gave us the gift of memories, not to use as weapons of destruction, but to help us keep a store of knowledge to help us through life. He intended us to be able to learn from those things that were both positive and those that were negative. He intended for us to relive those moments of good times as children, and as adults with our spouse and our children. When we dig up those memories of past mistakes and hurl them as spears, we are not following His plan, we are not using the gift in it the way He intended. Instead, we are using it as Satan wants, to generate strife and anger, to tear down a relationship, to destroy something that God has put together for us.

So, what have you been doing with your life lately? Have you been walking backwards, using God’s gifts in a negative way? We all have confrontations with spouses, children, friends and other people. Are you handling the situation as it is in the here and now, or, are you tossing spears of the past back and forth, with the intent of creating hurt instead of healing the problem? Do you have to win at any cost or do you want to fix whatever is wrong and turn your eyes back to the future? Remember, the end prize is out there ahead of us, eternity with God. If we are always looking backwards, how can we know how to get to Him? Where might we arrive at the end of the day?