go back

Sometimes there’s a pull to just go back. Back to when things felt more simple. Back to when we didn’t feel the struggle with some things the way we do now. Back to when we were blissfully unaware of heartache or brokenness the way we are now.

Now in 2020, I hear some people wish we could just go back. Back to the way things were before 2020.

There’s a measure to which we’ve all experienced grief from loss in some way this year. In a season of loss and grief it is completely valid to long to return to before the loss, before the grief so present.

But in other ways in which we long to go back, may I just gently remind us that in many ways the pressures of this year have merely squeezed out of us what was within us all along. And if it was within us, it was affecting us and those around us… even if we didn’t realize it. And I would guess, often in ways we didn’t realize. And I would further guess, often in ways those around us did realize.

If I’m seeing things that I now recoil from (but that were there all along), isn’t it better to know they are there so I can change and grow? So I can be a part of the solution for myself and for others, instead of part of the problem? 

This is what refining is all about. Being put over the fire so that everything that doesn’t belong within comes to the surface so it can be removed. Things like hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, impurity, and greed (Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5), should not be named among us.

Instead we should: “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.” (Isaiah 58)

For the child of God, the best is always yet to come. We are being transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18)… not from glory to gory. Glory to glory.

So heads up my friends. Let’s set our hearts on things above (Colossians 3:2) and on Jesus Himself so we can run the race set before us with endurance… and joy (Hebrews 12:1-2). 

And these pains, these groanings so present right now, they are birth pains (Romans 8:22). And birth pains lead to life! Life is beautiful. Life is a gift.

So let us press in. Let us mature. What a shame if we were to miss out on what this year can teach us!

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19) 

Will you not see it? God is doing a new thing. Making a way where there was none. Bringing provision and nourishment where there wasn’t. 

Please, let’s not wish to go back. Please come. Please.