Don’t Turn Back

Why do we always seem to go back to the things we said we were finished with? It always happens.

We quit smoking, but then trouble strikes, stress burns through us, and we’re standing in the cold chain smoking. We stop drinking, and we get not a fight, so we shotgun bottles of whiskey. We stop running our credit cards, and you want something you don’t need but somebody else absolutely has.

It’s the same thing with any and every new years resolution we make, every Lenten sacrifice we conjure, and every attempt to fix our lives to some type of behavioral modification– the body succumbs to the pressure of unwillingness and it beats our minds. Perhaps it’s more than that.

It may be that in our behavioral modifications we also become legalistically enamored with allowing people to enter into our community who display the same types of faults we have modified out of our lives. Perhaps it is us who turn back and place burdensome expectations on other people, who are striving to become faithful, that can never be met.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? – Galatians 4:9

When I entitled this quiet time, “Don’t Turn Back” I wanted to evoke two responses because there are definitely two responses we can have as “seasoned” Christians — by “seasoned” I just mean those of us who have been “Christian” longer than a day.

The first response is this: why do we fall back into old habits, a lifestyle we wanted to leave behind in our conversion when we face the stress of life? Isn’t the stress from life, that we face as Christians, just the circumstances left over from our life as non-Christians? So why do we foolishly add to that existing stress by falling back to our old ways that innately add stress we never wanted?

The second response: how is it that we expect others to meet our expectations when we don’t mean our own expectations ourselves? Yeah, so what is it that makes us think we somehow become these aged, season, veterans of Christianity on our own, like it wasn’t the good graces of God and the people who love us that walked through our own unbearableness?

Paul writes to these Churches, “did I waste my time preaching the gospel that sets you free without behavioral modification? (my paraphrase). He also writes, “falling back sucks, but don’t stay there because it is not who you are.” (again my own paraphrase).

The problem is with us these two statements seem so easy, almost too easy, for people whose problems far outweigh the possibility of redemption through God’s love alone.

Whether we are reckless and constantly go back to a life we gave us (pointing at myself), or we place unrealistic expectations on others to be perfect (again pointing to myself) one thing is clear– God has brought us this far in life and given us this much insight into faith and opened doors and opportunities that are not afforded to slaves owned by somebody else. In fact, with the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, we became heirs to the kingdom of God and despite who we once were or still are, God gives us what is His– that is, He gives us life, a new chance, a new opportunity, a new beginning, and a new hope to make much of Him and His love for us.

This morning, let us appreciate at that grace and mercy that sets us free, not by something we do, but something we freely receive. It is a love and mercy that knows our names and feels our pain and struggles with us as it sanctifies us.

We have to stop looking back, there is nothing there, our hope, joy and our life lies here in the present and we must look forward as we link our arms with each other and press forward with our savior.

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