Look Both Ways (11/22/2024)

My father taught me to drive. He taught me to look both ways before pulling out from a stop. One day, my sister was driving me to run errands. We headed down Tebeau Street, talking as we went. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a car hit us on the driver’s side. We were very shaken up, but not hurt. As the young driver spoke to the officer, he said he’d stopped, saw a car approaching on his left, waited for it to pass, but had failed to look to his right, the direction from which we were coming, before pulling out. He hadn’t looked both ways. To this day, I can hear my father’s words as I check traffic at a stop sign: “Look both ways.”

I’ve learned over time that my father’s advice applies to more than driving. I have learned it’s value on my spiritual journey. I’ve learned that I can get too caught up on what lies ahead and fail to consider what has already occurred. As I face challenges in a day, it helps tremendously to recall and give thanks for the challenges of the past which the LORD led me through. As I fear what lies ahead, there is a peace that comes to me when I look back and recognize how the LORD has been with me every step of the way so far.

Memory is the creative seed of wisdom. I learned this through life. And when I studied the book of Proverbs, I found it underscored. In Proverbs 8:22-29 we hear of Wisdom’s creation before the LORD created our world and Wisdom’s witness of the power of the LORD at work:

“The LORD begot me, the beginning of his works,

the forerunner of his deeds of long ago;

From of old I was formed,

at the first, before the earth.

When there were no deeps I was brought forth,

when there were no fountains or springs of water;

Before the mountains were settled into place,

before the hills, I was brought forth;

When the earth and the fields were not yet made,

nor the first clods of the world.

When he established the heavens, there was I,

when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

When he made firm the skies above,

when he fixed fast the springs of the deep;

When he set for the sea its limit,

so that the waters should not transgress his command;

When he fixed the foundations of earth.”

Wisdom is the awareness of divine truth and the ability to make human judgments in line with this remembering what one has learned from that relationship. Wisdom is realizing the LORD's divine truths and design. Wisdom is acknowledging that there is an all-present and all-loving LORD’s power at work for love of us and being able to go forward even in fear with trust in the LORD.

This next week, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving in the US. As we do, we look back and give thanks to the LORD for what has been and for the LORD’s power and presence at work in us, in others, in our world. Looking back not only makes sense, it makes us stronger because we see that this journey is not “solo.” The LORD is with us.

Look both ways. As we go forth into this day and this weekend, let us look both ways. Let us plan for the future, but let us do it with gratitude for our past and assurance for our future. In looking both ways, we see our LORD’s presence and trust that it will end as it should.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.