Forward Facing

The Christian community “has its roots in the future and its branches in the present…Hope is the bridge from the future into the present and the branches of that hope are faith and love.” (emphasis mine)

I love this word picture! These quotes are from the book The Good and Beautiful Community, by James Bryan Smith.  I am reading this book with a group of ladies and this was part the chapter for the week. These phrases were what were going thru my mind this morning, as I entered the labyrinth. They point to everything being forward facing. Nothing anchored in the past, nothing being dragged from behind ~ we are all being drawn forward. No weights, just uplifted. The past can hold us where we were never intended to be.

Another quote from the book is, “they have died to the narratives that control them.” One of the false perspectives we have is that of the “past”. To fear the past, to live in the past, to choose to allow those narratives to play in our soul, is to embrace the non-existent. The lie of the evil one that turns your heart’s focus from the ties of Jesus.

In “spiritual” terms, there is no such thing as the past….at least, I don’t think the way we see it. In this life we are bound to the linear. God meets us here, He indwells all of time. All of our days have been gifted into this world from our Father on High. They come from His temple, our future. To step forward with Him is to dismiss the lie of “past” ~ it is to take on our identity as God’s child and live with Him fully in our future now. To face backwards is to embrace the past as our future, to replace our future with a lie and to accept the spirit of worry in its stead. We have the opportunity, the imperative, to live walking in the certainty of trusting our Father.

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.

I will advise you and watch over you.

Psalm 32:8

When I step into the prayer labyrinth, it is such a representation of that life. The first of the path proceeds straight forward to the center, but turns as the stones move me on. I could so easily step over them, into Center, and that would be that ~ but the path does not lead that way. That is our life picture, isn’t it? He walks with us at every turn, some steps coming closer to Him and at other times the turns of life seem to lead away ~ but our Lord has laid out every step and He is in everyone of them. Our “now” comes from our future…so, in a very real way, no step of life leads away from Him.

The present only leads us to our future. At the Center, the very purpose of every moment in every day, is God leading us  to Him ~ taking us home.

Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live.

Ecclesiastes 5:19-20