Today I received an email from a friend with this brief statement:
“Amen! We must look forward not back.”
This reminded me of my father. Why, you ask?
Growing up on the farm, I spent a lot of time plowing, planting, mowing, raking and the like. I would start in the morning, doing the best I could. Dad worked at a bank, so I was on my own until he came home for lunch. While I had generally covered a lot of ground, my rows always ended up very crooked (not straight as an arrow rows as the ones in the photo below). Dad would hop up on the tractor, set his site on a point at the other end of the field (like a tree or a post), put the tractor in gear and head across the field. He wouldn’t once looking back at me. The new rows he created looked just like the ones in the photograph below, strait as an arrow. I can see him like it was yesterday.
Dad lived his life like this, he would forgive or confess when ever needed and keep moving forward. I wish I could let Dad know how I am doing now, I think he would see that I’m putting to practice what I learned from him and doing my best to look forward.
Because of Dad and this memory, the bible verse Luke 9:62 has always had special meaning to me. Philippians 3:13 is a good verse, too. I like the use of “straining” toward what is ahead.
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
My prayer today is I always look forward not back, that I would set my site on Jesus just like Dad did the tree, not looking back.
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