A Backward Glance

Carp's Daily Tidbits

"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Psalm 103:2

Date: Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Today's Title: A Backward Glance

Today's Scripture: 1 Kings 19:19-21

Dear Tidbitters,

            Monday mornings were no fun for Steven.  He hated getting up early and heading to work.  Actually, it wasn't the work he dreaded it was the traffic he had to face every morning on his way to the office.  Monday's were the worst because no one on the road was the least bit interested in being courteous.  Instead, it seemed every driver was on a self-proclaimed mission to be the dominant force on the highway. 

            Such was the case with the gentleman in the car immediately following Steven. He was playing a cat-and-mouse game with the other drivers around him.  He approached Steven's rear bumper, almost touching it, and then he would back off.  He would change lanes, only to return to his original place.  He cut people off and refused to let anyone get in front of him.  Steven spent the vast majority of his time looking in his rear view mirror, enthralled with the man directly behind him.  He was so absorbed that he failed to notice the stalled car in front of him and when he turned his attention back to the road ahead, it was too late. He hit the car squarely in the rear, bringing his car and several cars behind him, to a screeching, grinding halt.

            Many of us can identify with Steven's plight.  In fact, if we were honest, we would confess to gazing into our rear view mirrors far too often.  What is behind us seems to hold more allure than what lies before us.   We seem to be more interested in where we've been instead of concentrating on where we’re going.  Eventually, if we hold to this practice, we will meet with Steven's fate, we will collide with something.  It is impossible to move forward while constantly glancing backward.  To continue this practice is to invite unwanted danger, to act irresponsibly, and to endanger not only ourselves but others around us as well.

            The book of 1 Kings paints for us the example of a man who took a quick glance backward after receiving a call to move forward.  The call of Elisha is a good example of how a backward glance serves to encourage us to move forward.  In 1 Kings 19:19-21, the scriptures describe for us the call of Elisha by the prophet Elijah.  So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant."

            God had instructed Elijah, a great prophet, to go and find the man, Elisha, and choose him as his servant.  When Elijah found Elisha, he placed his mantle on him as an indication he had chosen him.  Elisha's initial reaction concerned his family.  He wanted to return and kiss them goodbye and then follow Elijah.  While this seems noble and even the desirable thing to do, note Elijah's response.  He tells Elisha essentially, "Why do you want to go back after what I have done for you?"  What he had done was to call him into God's service.  In response, Elijah went back, killed his oxen, his means of support and his livelihood, made a fire with his plow, cooked the oxen, and then became Elijah's servant.  In essence, he glanced back for just a minute to his life before Elijah's call and decided to look forward.  He removed anything that would keep him from becoming Elijah's servant.

            Today, God’s call is to us.  He calls us to follow him, to leave our comfort zone, to leave our past accomplishments, and to join him.  For some of us it may mean leaving home and family.  For others of us it means changing careers or locations.  But for all of us it means to change our perspective, concentrating on what lies ahead instead on what is already behind us.  Jesus used this same illustration when speaking about the cost of following him.  His call was to leave the past where it belongs, in the past, and to join him in working for God's future kingdom.  His words, as recorded in Luke 9:62 demonstrate his expectation of those he calls, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."  
            Today, as you maneuver life's road, consider the following question. Are you content with the view behind or is your attention focused on the path ahead? Are you looking forward or are you glancing backward?