The Rear View Mirror is Helpful

I know. Sometimes, looking back is a bad idea.

One of my favorite stories is about a Sunday school class of second grade boys and girls. The teacher had just completed the Bible story of Lot and his family, how they barely escaped from Sodom before it was destroyed. The angel warned them not to look back, but Lot’s wife did, and she turned into a pillar of salt.

Before the teacher could begin her application, a little boy excitedly raised his hand and offered his own. “My mother looked back last week,” he said loudly, “and she turned into a telephone pole!”

I often encourage people to look forward, not backward. Looking back is a bad idea, especially when it involves a selfish refusal to step forward in obedience to God. The Bible is full of examples, and Lot’s wife is only one of them.

However, the Bible is also full of “rear view mirrors,” as I like to call them. They call us to look back, to remember. Jesus used one of them when he spoke to his disciples of a judgment of God yet to come. It’s recorded in Luke 17:32.

Looking back, I can see that God has placed rear view mirrors not only in the Bible, but also in my own life. I understand the present and anticipate the future much better when I pay attention to the past. A recent example came to me when a friend called to discuss the organization of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. He noticed that ministers hold nearly all the elected positions in the Fellowship and wondered aloud whether or not we are actually a fellowship of ministers.

Aha! Someone noticed! I remember my own surprise when I finally put the pieces together about ten years ago. I was reading old documents dating back to the origins of the Progressive Brethren movement. One of the leaders answered a question about the form of church government we would take. “We are still deciding,” he wrote, “whether or not we should be Episcopal in form.” That raised my eyebrows. About the same time, I found a book written by a critic of the newly minted Brethren Church. The writer suggested that Progressives had developed another way to “control the churches.” They would control them through the ministers rather than through a central government.

My eyes were opened and I saw our arrangement of churches in a new light. I see a crazy patchwork of Episcopal, Presbyterian and Congregational forms being used among the separate churches. However, when we gather churches together in district and national forums, the voices of ordained ministers are the ones being heard. That’s an Episcopal form of government. The past has a firm grip on our future.

In the final analysis, I don’t think the form of church government matters a great deal to God. Any form will work, unless leaders misbehave or struggle for power over others. When that happens, followers of Jesus are embarrassed and troubled. They feel what Jesus must feel. I see that in my rear view mirror as well.

Rear view mirrors are helpful.