Don’t look back: One of the greatest of all major league pitchers and a wonderful personality was Satchel Paige. Because of racism, he spent most of his career in the Negro League, but he got to Major League Baseball late in his career and when he was well beyond 40.
As dominating a pitcher as he was, he was just as well known for his funny sayings. One in particular stands out for its wisdom and practical value. Paige said, “Don’t look back. Somethin’ might be gainin’ on you.”
God exists outside of time
Most folks at the time just dismissed it as another one of Satchel’s quirky sayings, but let’s take a closer look. God is the “One who was, is and is to come.” Our almighty creator exists outside of time.
For Him there is no time. Countless centuries are but a blink of an eye. There is an eternity past, the moment and then eternity future. He has a pristine memory of all events that have ever taken place throughout time and He has a pristine view of all things that are happening and will happen.
Humans have the moment, but their memory of the past can be distorted by emotion, mental illness or just forgotten entirely.
It’s our memory of the past that serves as a heavy yoke on our shoulders. We do not have an objective perspective on the events of our lives. They are all interpreted through our own lens. This lens does not give us an objective view. God’s view is objective and is the truth.
The old is gone, don’t look back!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:17-21)
We are “A new creation”
This amazing passage, written by the Apostle Paul, gives us the absolute truth about our relationship with God when we accept His gift of salvation through Jesus.
“A new creation” can be interpreted as erasing the past, because God will not remember our sins against us. He doesn’t forget them, but He doesn’t hold them against us because the price of our sins has been paid in full.
That’s a huge difference in perspective. If we are cleansed of our wrongdoing, if we are forgiven, there is no reason to dwell in the past and all the more reason to look to the future. Satchel was right. Don’t look back.
It is hard to let go of the past
The hardest part to all of this idea of letting go of the past. We often get in the way. Maybe we don’t believe God will make us a new creation, or maybe we focus on what others will say.
People don’t always believe that God can transform us, so rather than accepting God’s truth, we choose to call Him a liar. But God can change anybody.
Saul HATED Jesus
The Apostle Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, was a hater of Jesus and a murderer of Christ’s followers. The man was a Pharisee and believed, deep in his soul, that Jesus was evil. So to preserve the Jewish faith and protect his own turf, he made it his mission to eradicate the message of the Gospel.
But a face-to-face encounter of the risen Messiah changed him forever. God’s fiercest human enemy became God’s most powerful evangelist. Paul wrote much of the New Testament.
God took a filthy cut-throat and transformed him into a gentle, loving and articulate messenger of Jesus’ gift. Think of what God can do for you. Just accept His free gift and don’t look back, because the past is past and the future calls you.