Slow to Learn . . .

"Don’t you understand even yet? Don’t you remember the 5,000 I fed with five loaves, and the baskets of leftovers you picked up? Or the 4,000 I fed with seven loaves, and the large baskets of leftovers you picked up? Why can’t you understand that I’m not talking about bread? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ ” (Jesus from Matthew 16:9–11, NLT)   I'll let you do your own work--and I hope you will--to get the context and flow of the words from our Lord quoted above.  It is clear, however, that there was a lesson from the past that these guys had failed to learn and/or apply.      Living in the past is not good.           Learning from the past is excellent. Let's look back today and ask, "What has the Lord taught me yesterday that will help me today, and lead to a better tomorrow?" As we walk with the Lord today, let's ask, what is the Lord teaching me, that I need to preserve, so I'll have it later. Don't look back unless you have good reason.  Learning from past reasons is one very good justification for checking the rear-view mirror.   It's STTA

Don't Look Back, except for the right reason.

Something To Think About, Don't Look Back, well maybe . . .

"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."  So said baseball great Satchel Paige.   I've seen folk who could have used a strong dose of Paige's wisdom.  I've never met anyone with as bad a case of being stuck in time as Dickens' Miss Havisham,  but I have known a lot of folk who would be helped greatly by a case of amnesia.  For too many the clock stopped a long time ago. Some people never get over past hurts.  Like an unhealed wound their soul continues to ooze.  They never get over it.  Worse, I've met folk--and I've spent time in this funk, myself--who think that they have a right to their misery.  In a perverted way they come to like it.  It is hard work, but it is worth the effort.  Get over it.  One guy I know well has a nagging pain in his heart; he was treated badly.  "Whenever I think about those who hurt me, I pray that God will bring His very best to them."  He says it helps.  Do what you need to do get your eyes off that past hurt. I've known others who had failed in the past.  Failure is no fun.  The easiest way to avoid failing to stop  trying.  You've probably met someone whose life is defined by woulda, coulda, shoulda.  Maybe so, but there is no law of nature that says that past failures necessarily lead to future limitations.  Don't let that past failure become an anchor that prevents progress. At this point I'm where I want to change perspective.  During the time of transition that I'm going through, I'm keeping Paige's aphorism about not looking back in mind.  At this point in my life, from an earthly perspective, there is more past than there is future.  But the past and the future are different in a very important way.  The past is.  I can't change it.  I can make a difference in the future. Still, if I'm going maximize the opportunities of the future, I need to adequately process the lessons of the past. Stay tuned. It's STTA