May 24, 2007
Looking Ahead
READ: Proverbs 24:13-20
A righteous man may fall seven times and rise again. —Proverbs 24:16
During General Colin Powell’s tenure as US Secretary of State, he discovered that a speech he made to the United Nations had been based, in part, on wrong information. In his long and distinguished career, this was a low point and a blot on his record. “I’m disappointed,” he told an interviewer. “I’m sorry it happened and wish those who knew better had spoken up at the time, but there isn’t anything else I can say about it.”
Instead of being chained by the past, Mr. Powell says he has chosen to “focus on the front windshield and not the rearview mirror” of life.
All of us have something in our past that we regret doing. It may have been an honest mistake, a moral failure, or a foolish decision. We wish it had not happened, but it remains in our mind and often drags us down.
The writer of Proverbs said that “honey . . . is sweet to your taste; so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; if you have found it, there is a prospect [future hope], and your hope will not be cut off” (Prov. 24:13-14).
While the past remains part of our lives, it doesn’t have to determine our future. With God’s wisdom and the forgiveness He offers (Ps. 130:3-4; Acts 13:38-39), we can focus on the future with hope.
Have vanished through God’s pardoning grace;
The guilty fear has passed away,
And joy has come to take its place. —Ackley
