Looking Ahead

It was a leadership retreat.  It had been an amazing day- gourmet food, a ropes course, getting to know the others in the group.  I had stayed up late chatting by the fire with some of the guys, and made my way back to the women's cabins alone, about a half mile back through the woods in the pitch dark.

I had my flashlight, and I used it to stay out of the small puddles that lined the path.  I also made sure I didn't run into any trees on the way, and that I made it to the right cabin.

This was the image I had as I was reading Charles Stanley's new book, "How to Reach your Full Potential for God", where he draws a mental picture of using your flashlight or lantern to get through the woods in the middle of the night.  He makes these points:
  • You need the light to see in the distance, to be able to know your goal and the direction you are headed.
  • You need the light to see either side of the path, to make sure you are not wandering into the underbrush, or even worse, off the edge of a ravine.  
  • You also need to be able to see directly in front of you, to see immediate hazards and challenges.  
The obvious omission is that you don't need to shine your light behind you.  In order to move forward, you have to focus on where you are and where you are going.  Outside of forgiving and forgiving, you can't change what's in your past. 

The flashlight in Stanley's illustration?  Psalm 119:105 (NIV) "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2010 at 11:26 AM

    Good post. Putting your past behind you is one of the toughest things one can do... but it is necessary in order to move forward.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wildflowerwritesJanuary 21, 2010 at 5:52 PM

    Eric, I know you know what you're talking about. God bless!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discovering Happiness

What makes you happy? Since I have a Bachelor’s in psychology, I could tell you that nothing can make you feel a certain way.  You choose to perceive the circumstances around you and interpret those thoughts into feelings.  What fun is that? Julie Andrews sang about “My Favorite Things” in the movie, “Sound of Music”: Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings… Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings… Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes Silver white winters that melt into springs These are a few of my favorite things I’m not quite as poetic, but here a few of my favorite things: May sunshine, warming my face and arms Rich dark c...
Read more

Acknowledgement

Okay, acknowledgement is not really a value.  It's more of an action, but it has everything to do with the way you view the world and your relationship with other people.  My pastor used an illustration in his sermon today... you wouldn't walk into a dinner at the White House (assuming you were invited) and not acknowledge the President.  He would be the reason you were at the White House, and the person who happens to live there.  Even though the people we come into contact on a daily basis may not have as much clout as the President of the United States, they still matter.  I work in a nursing home.  I am deeply aware that just taking the time to nod or smile or say hello to residents I pass in the hallway is vitally important.  Many of these people already feel discarded by their families, hopeless about their health, and live day to day going from medications to therapy to meals, and not much else.  If you want to make a difference in ...
Read more

The Pink Slip

I haven't blogged for awhile.  At some point I decided that writing daily was never going to get me to the writing career I longed for.  However, since I am recently unemployed (technically self-employed with a tiny paycheck), I thought maybe sharing my experiences in that category might be helpful to others. I've always felt the most for those who have been laid off because there wasn't enough work, or there were budget cuts, or the position was eliminated.  No one feels sorry for the person who was fired. That's me.  Fired, canned, terminated, given the pink slip.  I had been joking for years that I looked forward to that day.  It wasn't that great, after all.  Although I don't believe I deserved it, no one wants to hear that.  It doesn't matter that Indiana is an at-will employment state, and that my employer did just that- fired me without a good reason.  I didn't complete a project because I was working overtime with what...
Read more