Looking back

This week I was listening to a message and I was reading the verse in Luke 17:32 which simply says

"Remember Lot's wife."  

This is a really interesting statement. When Jesus tells us to consider something or remember something we should pay attention.

So what do we know about Lot's wife?  Not a lot really.  But what we do know is that an angel of the Lord took her by the hand to lead her out of the city before God destroyed it.  She was told to run for her life and not look back.  According to Genesis 19, she ran but she turned and look back and as a result, turned to a pillar of salt. 

This short verse really spoke to me for a number of reasons.   

The Apostle Paul tells us
"I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead."  (Phil 3:13 TPT)

Since 2020, it's like we have a new category in history BC now stands for BEFORE COVID! People are always saying "Well, before Covid we...."  It's like everyone is longing for the days before the pandemic, but the truth is, the only thing that's definitely coming back is Jesus. 

I don't know much about where Lot's wife came from or really much about her at all, not even her name, but at a guess, I would speculate that she was like most other woman. We know from the passage in Luke 17 that in the days of the Lot, life was going on as usual (v 28): people were building, planting, selling and buying, so the likelihood is Mrs Lot was building her home, raising her children and making friends.  Whatever the case was, her heart was there.  We know that because, despite the terrible events of the night (men threatening to sexually abuse their guests or attack the home etc) and the stuff going on the city that was vexing Lot's righteous soul (2 Peter 2:8), something about the place drew her heart, and eventually her eyes, back to the city, despite the warning.

How often do our hearts wonder back to what is past.   Whether that was a friendship that is lost, a marriage that failed, a job that we loved... Whatever it is, we look back with longing, but God is calling us to take his hand and let him lead us to the Promise Land ahead.    

The thing about calcification (becoming a pillar of salt) is that it fills what should be soft tissue and it  becomes hard. This same process can happen to our hearts, when we continue to look back.

We have a phrase "The best is yet to come" and we can only truly enter into what is ahead when we let go of the past and press on forward.