Don't Dwell on the Past
Burn the Ships, Don’t You Look Back

Burn the Ships, Don’t You Look Back

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Do you look back at what has passed by? Have you walked away from situations, but can’t quite quit dwelling on or reassessing how it could have been different? I was listening to the for King & Country song called Burn the Ships and it hit me so hard how often we continue to look at what is behind us, unable to keep focused on what is in front of us. The following is a few of the song lyrics or you can click on the highlighted link to watch the video.  
 
Lyrics from for King & Country
Burn the Ships
 
How did we get here?
All castaway on a lonely shore
I can see in your eyes, dear
It’s hard to take for a moment more
We’ve got to
Burn the ships, cut the ties
Send a flare into the night
Say a prayer, turn the tide
Dry your tears and wave goodbye
Step into a new day
We can rise up from the dust and walk away
We can dance upon our heartache, yeah
So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships
And don’t you look back
 
For more information on for King & Country click here and to watch a video discussing the meaning behind Burn the Ships song click here.
 
The phrase “Burn The Ships” comes from 1519 when Spanish Conqueror Hernando Cortez and his 600 man crew landed in Yucatan, Mexico to seize the great treasures of the Aztecs. Cortez was committed to his mission to overtake a legendary empire and the primary reason he was successful was because he didn’t give his crew an option to fail! Upon landing on shore, he ordered “burn the ships”! Thus defeat was no longer an option because they COULD NOT RETREAT back to the ships! There was only one option…forward to victory! There was no Plan B. They could only move ahead and envision success because there was literally NOTHING to look back to.
 
This really got me to thinking about how often we get stuck analyzing a situation or relationship that we wish had ended differently. We just keep looking back at the possibility of what was or could have been. Perhaps you are left wondering as many of us are right now, what the “new normal” will look like in our culture and wishing things would go back to the way they were. If it is a current wound sometimes I find myself literally unable to focus on what may lie ahead. I trust God is doing something incredible through it, but I am still keeping my mind and focus on the past. I think it is human nature to sit a moment and lick our wounds before diving head first into the next adventure, but that isn’t what we are called to do – as brutal as that may be to embrace. The Bible calls us to “not look back” in multiple scriptures throughout God’s word. The most prominent biblical story that comes to mind is Lot’s wife who is warned not to look back, but takes one last glance at what was her home and is immediately turned into a pillar of salt. 
 
Genesis 19:12-13, 15-17, 24-26 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.” With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

 

We can definitely see that God is serious here. If we rely on our human nature we view it as a bit extreme to be turned into a pillar of salt for turning around to take one last look at her homeland.  

However God tells us in Isaiah….Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. The most important take away here is that when we keep our eyes focused back over our shoulder, it matters to God A LOT! He is clearly NOT messing around. He wants us to keep moving forward for the purposes he created us for and not debilitated by the pain of the past. Over and over again the Bible reiterates this message…. 

 

Isaiah 43:18-19“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

 

Luke 9:62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

 

Philippians 3:13 But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

 

And just in case, you needed a visual…..

 

2 Peter 2:20-22 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

 

There are just not to many more things more disgusting than a dog returning to consume its own vomit. My apologies for the visual, but it is an undeniable vision of what God thinks about us going back to the hurts of our past and trusting the ways of the world to heal our wounds and not trusting in  his righteousness. I am just as guilty as anyone of wallowing around in the mud of my past sometimes, but can we at least agree that if we see it for what it is….literally returning to our own vomit….that it is time to leave it there and walk away! 

 

If there are amends to make then pray about it and seek God’s wisdom. If you need to repent for actions that were not God honoring, then repent and ask for his forgiveness. Ultimately though God wants to see us move forward, trusting him for a new day. He doesn’t want us to keep second guessing what could have, should have or would have been. It just is what it is. If restoration of a relationship is possible then you can believe our God is big enough to accomplish it. If you have committed what you believe to be the unforgiveable sin, Jesus blood has redeemed you. Do you believe it? 

 

One step in front of the other with no looking back.

As Hebrews 12:2 says

“let us run” – not WALK hesistantly, but RUN

“the race set out for us” – God DIVINELY appointed a race for US

“KEEP our eyes on Jesus” – NO looking behind us. 

 

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 

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