Three years ago, my wife and I hosted a smart, promising young woman for dinner. Though well liked and professionally successful, she was suffering from severe depression.
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Her spiritual background was a mixture of Buddhist yoga and meditation, blended with inspirational, therapeutic Christianity. Her favorite Christian preacher was Joel Osteen.
She said that Osteen’s teachings weren’t as biblically based as they were encouraging tips and techniques buoyed by a verse or two from Scripture. He made up for his scanty biblical basis by telling inspirational stories and offering commonsense wisdom.
For example, she had recently heard Osteen explain that a deep spiritual life is like driving a car. You have an enormous front windshield and a dinky rearview mirror. If you want a rich, full life, he urged my friend to invest her energy looking forward to unlimited potential, and then occasionally—although rarely—glance back at the past.
A year later this promising young woman tried to kill herself.
When Counterfeit Commonsense Contradicts Scripture
Her situation was complicated, dozens of factors contributed, and I hesitated to mention Osteen’s name because I’ve never heard him preach. But he was the preacher she listened to, and that seemingly stirring counseling metaphor—of looking forward—was her main take-away from his preaching.
This popular cliché (Osteen simply adopted it) completely contradicts Scripture. Only the modern world tells us to fix our eyes forward. God repeatedly commands us to gaze backward:
- When a situation is too big for us to handle, God commands: “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are too great for me … you shall not fear them, but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.” (Deut. 7:17)
- If concerned about future provisions, God encourages us: “Remember the whole way that the Lord your God led you for forty years in the wilderness … and fed you with manna … and your clothing did not wear out. (Deut. 8:2-4)
- If you are feeling worthless, God reminds us: “The Lord your God has chosen you to be … his treasured possession, out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.” (Deut. 7:6)
- When proud of our successes, God warns: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gave you power to get wealth. (Deut. 8:17-18)
God’s counsel for every trouble we ever face today is to look to yesterday. The answers for our past and future, and the greatest gift God has given humanity, is history or His Story.
The Shallow Wisdom of Counterfeit Spirituality
If your parents neglected you, or your spouse abused you, it feels freeing to “look to the future and leave the past in the rearview mirror.” But that advice is counterfeit. The past still has its fangs in our heart even when our eyes are tight shut. Forgetting the venom isn’t freedom. Liberty comes only when the past is defanged and the blood is cleansed with an antivenom.
Many spiritual tips and techniques seem wise in the moment, especially when that “wisdom” is accompanied by cutesy metaphors. But what tastes sweet in the moment can cause cancer.
And the cure for past hurts is to look to the deeper past—to His story—to see a Father who never forgot you and a spouse so faithful that it cost His life to rescue you.
Biblical scholars debate which command of God is most frequently echoed. The two most repeated commands are “Have no idols!” and “Remember!” And, really, they are the same thing. When we “remember” God, our idols look stupid.
And our idols are any solution for our problems that are devoid of resting in God. Even if cute.
Besides, the future isn’t always lollipops and sunshine. Sometimes you really are getting older, or weaker, or more forgetful. And more of your friends will die, someday even you.
We Need God, Not Cutesy Counterfeits
We asked our suffering friend what ran through her mind when suffering deep depression. She said, “Seventy-five percent of my thoughts repeat these phrases: ‘This will never end; I will never be free of this sadness.’” To advise her to look only to the future—a future of seeming unending suffering—is spiritual malpractice. God commands the opposite.
The only cure for her future (and for ours) is to look to the past; to remember that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; that the Lion is on the prowl for our good. Everything he sends is necessary for our good, and nothing he withholds can be necessary.
My friend’s struggles were multi-dimensional; I know many readers have lost loved ones to suicide; I’ve never suffered depression; and I in no way mean to disparage those who suffer depression or who have taken their lives. My point is this: as believers, it is absolutely critical that we offer what God has uniquely given us to bring to the world.
The world doesn’t need us to echo their advice. They need God’s.
It’s why Paul, said, “I only preach the cross.” Paul’s gospel spirituality is this: The only way to move forward is to look in the rearview mirror.
Sam
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Hunting Heroes
Remember the Good – Forget the Bad
“… you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8 The Message).
Like the post. Read back to back this as well the morning. Seems to be some balance in this wisdom?
Hi Keith,
GREAT passage. I would argue (well, at least I’d suggest 🙂 ) that this passage is also encouraging a deep meditation on God’s goodness. Which is the past and the future.
The verse ends with a command, the imperative: “Think about these things.” It used the Greek word logizomai (from which we get “logic”) think furiously hard about the beautiful truths and their implications.
And those truths all describe our Lord:
Terrific comment. Thanks.
Sam
Thanks, Sam. It reminds me of Psalm 42:6 – My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I REMEMBER you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
– Marty
Yes! Perfect.
I agree with our need not to be controlled by past evil deeds (either done to us or we did to others, even if just accidental). It’s just that we can’t forget them. We need a supernatural healing.
Which comes from remembering Him.
What is the old hymn?
Our Friend and Savior asked us to remember his suffering and death at the institution of the Eucharist ( Holy Communion) during the Passover meal.
Hi Steve,
Great! The English word “remember” means more than just to recall.
To “remember” is to put back together, to re-knit, to re-member.
It’s the opposite of the world’s wisdom, which separates us from God, and de-members us from His presence.
Thank you Sam. A great reminder that we naturally often think incorrectly. As I was reading I was sure you would end with something about forgiveness. I know you are aware of how important it is. Forgiving ourselves and others helps us orient to the past and also is the lock that frees us from its chains. Thank you again. Your writings are thoughtful, provocative, and helpful.
Hi Fred,
You’ve always got a good slant. No, I wasn’t thinking about forgiveness, but I wish I had been.
Because even in forgiveness, we can forgive only when (and to the degree) we know we are forgiven. Just like love: we love because he first loved us.
Which is remembering. Which leads us into the future unhindered by the past :-).
Great comment. Thanks.
Great article, Sam! I appreciate your candor and the emphasis on “remembering”. This doesn’t mean our spiritual testimony is only anchored in the long ago past, however. We must constantly fan the flame of thankfulness and faith that is also necessary in our current circumstances.
Hi Stephen,
Absolutely. In one sense we ARE anchored to the past–HIS past, HIS story–but in another sense we are anchored to the future, to the future resurrection (If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied — 1 Cor. 15:19)
Instead, God calls us to hope for the future.
Which depends on His past.
Which frees us from OUR past.
For a bountiful future.
See you there!
I like your brief mention of what I translated as duty… We are called to bring something to the world, with what we have been given, not out of what we don’t have or anything God hasn’t supplied, but with what we have. That sense of purpose and affirmed place of calling (whether high or low) and the fact it comes from God is a great reprieve from the idols that demand what they haven’t given, and also from comparisons.
Hi Cheryl,
Just a terrific point: we can only give what we’ve been given.
I love it. Thanks,
Sam
Great post Sam! It reminds me of one of my favorite Psalms which summarizes all that God has done for us beginning with this exhortation from David.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
Psalms 103:2 NKJV
Hi Lloyd,
We actually meet tomorrow! I look forward to it.
And, yes, “Forget not all his benefits.” Probably my greatest sin (amongst the myriads) is my forgetfulness. And lack of gratitude.
Thanks,
Sam
Thanks, Sam…
Another great insightful article. I much enjoy reading from the Psalms at the start of my prayer time, where we atre often called to remember the wonderful deeds of the Lord.
Actually, the psalms probably “remember” God’s great deeds more than any other book in the Bible. The “remembering” sneaks in Psalm after Psalm:
And dozens more
But maybe Joel Osteen was thinking about Philippians 3: 13-15, which says, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.” Paul even uses the word “forgetting.” On this point, one can find both views of this question. It is simply a matter of balance.
Hi Walter,
Yes, Osteen may have been thinking that. But Paul is referring to forgetting his own self-reliance. Earlier he says:
And then he lists his own self-reliance:
Then he says he wants to let go of (release, forget) his own self-accomplisments:
It is in the contest of abandoning HUMAN efforts (tips and techniques) that Paul “forgets” the past:
Paul resoundingly rejects human solutions. Like human wisdom of looking in the front windshield.
In some ways, the entire mood of Philippians is set by the glorious song in Phil. 2, called the Kenosis:
Paul bases all his teaching … on remembering Christ come to earth, on the cross, and lifted high in Glory.
If modern leaders preached that, I’d be first in line to recommend them.
Instead, too many modern preachers just parrot feel-good sayings that totally lack the power of the gospel
Great article Sam. Thank you! This reminds me of something I heard a pastor teach years ago. One of the Hebrew words for future (Jer 29:11) or end (Is 46:10) is aharit. The interesting thing about aharit is that it literally means “afterward, backwards” or after part. According to the German theologian H. W. Wolff, the Hebrew concept of time we see in aharit is like a man rowing a boat. The rower clearly sees where he has been, but the future is toward his back. He backs into the future with his past in full view.
Hi Jim
GREAT Hebrew lesson. Never heard that explanation … and I love it!
Sam