My car not only has a rear view mirror, but it also has mirrors on either side. All three of these mirrors are designed to help me see what I have just passed or what is coming up behind me. I find it helpful to use these mirrors as I drive.
However, if all you do when you drive is look behind you, sooner or later you are going to have a wreck. Most of our attention needs to be spent looking forward, out the front windshield.
So it is with life. We need to spend the necessary time to reflect on the past, so that we can learn from our mistakes. After all, those who do not learn the lessons from the past are doomed to repeat them. Our main focus should be on the future - our hopes, our dreams, our aspirations and what it is going to take to see them through.
Not only do I have rear view mirrors, I also have 'blindside' mirrors as well. I have been told I am a hyper-vigilant driver, and it's true. I am always aware of what is happening many multiples of car lengths ahead of me, and lanes to both sides as well. Unfortunately every wreck I have been in to date has been some Nimrod to my side or rear that has caught me in an unaviodable situation where I had no options. If there is one thing I have learned in my faith journey to date, it is that a state of spiritual hype-vigilance is even more important than what I display behind the wheel. The enemy is cunning baffling and powerful and always trying to blind side me. Harry Truman said "the only things new, is the history we've forgotten", and my history is rely on my own judgement. If I forget that judgement is what got me here, I am doomed to repeat that history.
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