Some time back, I titled one of my previous New Year’s themed blog posts “BACK AND FORTH”. I would like to revisit this fairly common phrase today. More than likely, most everyone reading these words has both heard and employed this particular phrase. In common usage, it gets applied to everything from the exchange of words within a conversation to the process of mowing one’s lawn. It is even a metaphor for the living of one’s life.
Charles Swindoll likely had this in mind when he wrote a book titled Three Steps Forward, One Step Back. Both this book’s title and its content assert that life is rarely a continual progression from bad to good, or good to better. It is rather a series of advances interspersed with retreats, of successes intermixed with setbacks.
Dr. Swindoll is right. If we would be honest, most all of us advance by taking a few steps forward and then one or two back before proceeding yet again. What is more, God‘s Word amply affirms this principle. The Holy Bible contains numerous examples of people whose progression through life was peppered with intermittent failures, with no less than King David, John the Baptist, and Simon Peter among them.
It has been said the Bible paints pictures of the people within its covers “warts and all”. That is to say that it makes no attempt to hide their frailty. For my part, I’m glad it does. I find encouragement as I read of the struggles and eventual successes among the various lives unfolding on the pages of Scripture. For this has helped me to accept the fact that I am not perfect. I cannot be. Nor must I be. Rather, I realize that my own journey forward in life may be periodically punctuated with a step backward.
But this does not mean I cannot make progress. God understands my weaknesses; yet, He works in and through me in spite of them! Thus, with His help, I can learn from my mistakes and make tomorrow a better day than today, even as today can be made a better day than yesterday. But I digress.
The events of the past couple of weeks have helped me to gain yet another, perhaps even greater, appreciation for the phrase “Back and Forth”. Knowing that I would be laid up for a couple of weeks while recovering from foot surgery, I had prepared a number of personal projects in advance to which I hoped to give my attention. Among them was some long overdue genealogical research.
My personal love for genealogy came about as the natural result of a combination of two other loves: history and family. The wonder of genealogy is that it combines the two and thereby makes history come alive. It literally imbues history with personal meaning. Thus, one does not just merely read about such historical events as World War Two or the Great Depression. Instead, one begins to sense the very personal nature of these historical events, particularly when he or she sees how it personally affected one’s family.
By way of illustration, few things make such times come alive like holding a book of Ration Stamps that once belonged to one’s very own grandfather. To see the limits imposed on sugar, coffee, gasoline, and other such simple, everyday necessities is to see how they lived their everyday lives in the midst of times that required tremendous sacrifice from everyone.
As I have worked on updating my genealogy over the last few weeks, I have been reminded of all those in my family who came before me, as well as the untold number of sacrifices they undertook on behalf of me and all successive generations. It has been both humbling and beneficial to look back and be reminded of this.
But then came the events of this past Wednesday, when my son welcomed his own firstborn son into the world. As he did, I welcomed my second grandson (and the first to bear my surname). As you might expect, this has been a time of great joy in our family. Emotions have abounded as we have celebrated this wonderful event together.
For me, though, it has not just been a time of emotion. It has also been a time of reflection. For suddenly, in the midst of spending so much time looking “back” into the past (in my genealogical studies), I have now found myself looking “forth” into the future as well. In the process, I have reached some important conclusions.
Yesterday matters. Without it, there would be no today. Or at the very least, without the events of yesterday, today would not have turned out as it has. Conversely, part of why today matters so much is because of its impact on tomorrow. In short, tomorrow matters. And for this reason, today matters. And for both of these reasons, yesterday matters.
In the first part of my life (during my childhood), I more or less viewed myself as the end result of a process. I was the recipient of what all had come before. After all, I was the grandchild alongside of my parents and grandparents. Later on, as an adult, I began to view myself more as a contributor. Finding myself with children of my own, I began to see that I too gave as well as got.
Now, I am beginning to see myself less as either one of these (as in the receiver OR the giver) and more as a combination of both of them. The events of this week in particular have helped once more to underscore for me that I am merely one among many in a very long line between the past and the present. I am, quite literally, just one of many, many, many links in a vast chain. Viewed against the backdrop of human history, I am but a small part of something far, far bigger than myself.
And yet, I am a vital part of that chain. Without me, the chain would have been broken. It would not have gone forward. Of course, the same thing can be said of every other link in this chain. Every single link has mattered. And every single link will matter. Each piece simultaneously represents the past, the present, and the future! That is the very nature of the chain.
For this reason, it is important that I stay strong in my appointed time. It is essential that I connect with both the past and the future, that I take what I have received from all that have come before me and pass it on to all that come after me. This is my responsibility – to keep the chain connected, strong, and growing. Oh, how I pray that I will be found faithful in my time. Oh, how I pray that will be found faithful as a part of this “chain gang”!
In the Old Testament Book of Esther (chapter 4, verse 14), the title character was told by her uncle, Mordecai, that she may very well have been placed by God when and where she was for the sole purpose of protecting and procuring the future of her people.
I would suggest that, in a very real sense, this can be said of all of us. In His divine sovereignty, God has surely positioned each and every one of us as individual links at precisely the point in the chain where we can be the most effective. And we do this by acknowledging our debt to all those before (and around) us, and then by passing these blessings along to those after and beyond us!
At the risk of extending a post that is arguably already too long, I would like to share one last thought. My genealogical research has taught me that what is true for individuals is also true for families: they each progress by taking a few steps forward and then one or two backward. A lineage can go up for generation or two, improving both its standard of living and its standing in its community.
And then, through such uncontrollable events as war, disease, famine, economic downturns, and the like, fate can dictate that it go backward a step or two. In these times, there is little doubt that the struggles and eventual triumphs of previous generations can and do serve as powerful encouragement for facing difficult days. I am the recipient of such encouragement from my own ancestors. I now trust that I will be the provider of such for own descendants.
I leave you with the words of Steve Green from his number one song, “Find Us Faithful”, found on his multiple award winning 1994 album, “People Need the Lord”…
We’re pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who’ve gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God’s sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who’ve gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness
Passed on through godly lives
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we’ve left behind
May the clues that they discover
And the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them
To the road we each must find
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
Amen! So may it be!
SOURCES:
LYRICS SOURCE:
http://stevegreenministries.org/product/find-us-faithful-5/.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
http://biblehub.com/esther/4-14.htm.
FOR MORE ON CHARLES SWINDOLL, CHECK OUT:
http://www.stonebriar.org/about-us/staff-elders/staffmembers/1/, http://insight.org/about/chuck-swindoll, and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swindoll.
HIS ABOVE REFERENCED BOOK IS AVAILABLE HERE:
https://www.christianbook.com/three-steps-forward-two-back-paperback/charles-swindoll/9780849940989/pd/31272.
LASTLY… For what it’s worth, through the marvels of the internet, I have now been able to trace my personal genealogy all the way back to my 26th great grandfather - a certain Roger DeLascelles Jackson Sr., in England in 1086 AD. It is interesting that this man, born in the first generation after William the Conqueror's Norman invasion of 1066 AD, bears both English and French names! At some point, I hope to update my webpage to reflect this wealth of new information. Hopefully this will all come about in time.
Charles Swindoll likely had this in mind when he wrote a book titled Three Steps Forward, One Step Back. Both this book’s title and its content assert that life is rarely a continual progression from bad to good, or good to better. It is rather a series of advances interspersed with retreats, of successes intermixed with setbacks.
Dr. Swindoll is right. If we would be honest, most all of us advance by taking a few steps forward and then one or two back before proceeding yet again. What is more, God‘s Word amply affirms this principle. The Holy Bible contains numerous examples of people whose progression through life was peppered with intermittent failures, with no less than King David, John the Baptist, and Simon Peter among them.
It has been said the Bible paints pictures of the people within its covers “warts and all”. That is to say that it makes no attempt to hide their frailty. For my part, I’m glad it does. I find encouragement as I read of the struggles and eventual successes among the various lives unfolding on the pages of Scripture. For this has helped me to accept the fact that I am not perfect. I cannot be. Nor must I be. Rather, I realize that my own journey forward in life may be periodically punctuated with a step backward.
But this does not mean I cannot make progress. God understands my weaknesses; yet, He works in and through me in spite of them! Thus, with His help, I can learn from my mistakes and make tomorrow a better day than today, even as today can be made a better day than yesterday. But I digress.
The events of the past couple of weeks have helped me to gain yet another, perhaps even greater, appreciation for the phrase “Back and Forth”. Knowing that I would be laid up for a couple of weeks while recovering from foot surgery, I had prepared a number of personal projects in advance to which I hoped to give my attention. Among them was some long overdue genealogical research.
My personal love for genealogy came about as the natural result of a combination of two other loves: history and family. The wonder of genealogy is that it combines the two and thereby makes history come alive. It literally imbues history with personal meaning. Thus, one does not just merely read about such historical events as World War Two or the Great Depression. Instead, one begins to sense the very personal nature of these historical events, particularly when he or she sees how it personally affected one’s family.
By way of illustration, few things make such times come alive like holding a book of Ration Stamps that once belonged to one’s very own grandfather. To see the limits imposed on sugar, coffee, gasoline, and other such simple, everyday necessities is to see how they lived their everyday lives in the midst of times that required tremendous sacrifice from everyone.
As I have worked on updating my genealogy over the last few weeks, I have been reminded of all those in my family who came before me, as well as the untold number of sacrifices they undertook on behalf of me and all successive generations. It has been both humbling and beneficial to look back and be reminded of this.
But then came the events of this past Wednesday, when my son welcomed his own firstborn son into the world. As he did, I welcomed my second grandson (and the first to bear my surname). As you might expect, this has been a time of great joy in our family. Emotions have abounded as we have celebrated this wonderful event together.
For me, though, it has not just been a time of emotion. It has also been a time of reflection. For suddenly, in the midst of spending so much time looking “back” into the past (in my genealogical studies), I have now found myself looking “forth” into the future as well. In the process, I have reached some important conclusions.
Yesterday matters. Without it, there would be no today. Or at the very least, without the events of yesterday, today would not have turned out as it has. Conversely, part of why today matters so much is because of its impact on tomorrow. In short, tomorrow matters. And for this reason, today matters. And for both of these reasons, yesterday matters.
In the first part of my life (during my childhood), I more or less viewed myself as the end result of a process. I was the recipient of what all had come before. After all, I was the grandchild alongside of my parents and grandparents. Later on, as an adult, I began to view myself more as a contributor. Finding myself with children of my own, I began to see that I too gave as well as got.
Now, I am beginning to see myself less as either one of these (as in the receiver OR the giver) and more as a combination of both of them. The events of this week in particular have helped once more to underscore for me that I am merely one among many in a very long line between the past and the present. I am, quite literally, just one of many, many, many links in a vast chain. Viewed against the backdrop of human history, I am but a small part of something far, far bigger than myself.
And yet, I am a vital part of that chain. Without me, the chain would have been broken. It would not have gone forward. Of course, the same thing can be said of every other link in this chain. Every single link has mattered. And every single link will matter. Each piece simultaneously represents the past, the present, and the future! That is the very nature of the chain.
For this reason, it is important that I stay strong in my appointed time. It is essential that I connect with both the past and the future, that I take what I have received from all that have come before me and pass it on to all that come after me. This is my responsibility – to keep the chain connected, strong, and growing. Oh, how I pray that I will be found faithful in my time. Oh, how I pray that will be found faithful as a part of this “chain gang”!
In the Old Testament Book of Esther (chapter 4, verse 14), the title character was told by her uncle, Mordecai, that she may very well have been placed by God when and where she was for the sole purpose of protecting and procuring the future of her people.
I would suggest that, in a very real sense, this can be said of all of us. In His divine sovereignty, God has surely positioned each and every one of us as individual links at precisely the point in the chain where we can be the most effective. And we do this by acknowledging our debt to all those before (and around) us, and then by passing these blessings along to those after and beyond us!
At the risk of extending a post that is arguably already too long, I would like to share one last thought. My genealogical research has taught me that what is true for individuals is also true for families: they each progress by taking a few steps forward and then one or two backward. A lineage can go up for generation or two, improving both its standard of living and its standing in its community.
And then, through such uncontrollable events as war, disease, famine, economic downturns, and the like, fate can dictate that it go backward a step or two. In these times, there is little doubt that the struggles and eventual triumphs of previous generations can and do serve as powerful encouragement for facing difficult days. I am the recipient of such encouragement from my own ancestors. I now trust that I will be the provider of such for own descendants.
I leave you with the words of Steve Green from his number one song, “Find Us Faithful”, found on his multiple award winning 1994 album, “People Need the Lord”…
We’re pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who’ve gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God’s sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who’ve gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness
Passed on through godly lives
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we’ve left behind
May the clues that they discover
And the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them
To the road we each must find
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
Amen! So may it be!
SOURCES:
LYRICS SOURCE:
http://stevegreenministries.org/product/find-us-faithful-5/.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
http://biblehub.com/esther/4-14.htm.
FOR MORE ON CHARLES SWINDOLL, CHECK OUT:
http://www.stonebriar.org/about-us/staff-elders/staffmembers/1/, http://insight.org/about/chuck-swindoll, and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swindoll.
HIS ABOVE REFERENCED BOOK IS AVAILABLE HERE:
https://www.christianbook.com/three-steps-forward-two-back-paperback/charles-swindoll/9780849940989/pd/31272.
LASTLY… For what it’s worth, through the marvels of the internet, I have now been able to trace my personal genealogy all the way back to my 26th great grandfather - a certain Roger DeLascelles Jackson Sr., in England in 1086 AD. It is interesting that this man, born in the first generation after William the Conqueror's Norman invasion of 1066 AD, bears both English and French names! At some point, I hope to update my webpage to reflect this wealth of new information. Hopefully this will all come about in time.