Back to the Future (ideas based off a teaching by Brad Gray of the same title)
By Carrie Rodgers, Pastor at Alive In Grandville
This would normally be graduation season. You could walk down the card aisle of Target and pick from a sea of cards to give students who are graduating at any level. Some have glitter, some hold money, but most of them have a common theme: the future. Your future is bright or some variation of that with a big 2020 somehow wearing sunglasses. But what do we do in times like these when the future seems so uncertain? We talk a lot about facing the future, going forward into what lies ahead, like an intrepid adventure. I think we’ve got it wrong.
I listened to a teaching by Brad Gray and he says “in order to move forward we have to have our backs to the future and our vision focused on the past.” That’s not to say we should live in the past but remember it. My favorite Hebrew word is zakar. It shows up all over scripture when God is talking to his people. It means to remember. “Remember how I rescued and redeemed you from your slavery in Egypt? Remember how I took care of you in the desert for 40 years and have you manna from heaven? Remember I brought you into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised to your forefather Abraham?” Remember. Therefore, by looking to the future, or worrying about the uncertainty of the future you are neglecting your past. You are forgetting your story of when God showed up, when you saw him move.
The God that shows up for the Israelites is the same God that has been faithful to you every step of the way. So, turn around and zakar. Orient yourself to the past and trust that to guide your future. People keep using the word unprecedented to describe our current situation. Unprecedented literally means, never done or known before. That’s the future, it’s unknown and never done before. The future has always been fuzzy and nebulous, we don’t ever know what’s coming around the next corner. It’s what makes life so interesting. If we face the future with all the uncertainty we can easily get freaked out, anxious and fearful. Find time to remember. Recall all the ways that God has entered your story.
The future is uncertain, but God has a plan and it’s not for us to know…and that bugs us! God is saying, I’m asking you to turn around and put your back to the future, look to the past and be reminded of my faithfulness. Walk with confidence knowing he will do it again for he is the same yesterday and today and forever. Trust and remember.