Hindsight is 20/20 [two]: Using Hindsight to Live Right - Ron

When I was a sophomore in college, I had a business card printed with a future ministry in mind. It said: Hindsight Ministries: Helping your look back, look better." In hindsight, I'm glad I never tried to push for that as it seems kind of lame.

But hindsight is fun. Especially when a person pontificates on how different from yours his choice would have been in the same situation. Every person knows how perfect our track record would be if foresight was equal to hindsight. But it isn't.

It is also fun living in an age where almost everything that one says and does is kept via a digital record giving rise to the saying, "that didn't age well." One of my favorites is when Blockbuster used Twitter to ask people to tweet out why they were leaving Netflix using #GoodbyeNetflix as a tag. That was September of 2011, and now I have to explain to my students what Blockbuster was. Surprisingly only to the social media geniuses behind the Blockbuster account, my students all know what Netflix is.

So, yeah, you can use hindsight to be a jerk and try to gain a one-up on your frenemies. Hindsight can give us a laugh at the expense of someone else. But, surely, there must be something positive that we can learn from stuff that has happened before.  

In Judges 1:21 and 27-35, the Bible records that people groups that should have been driven out of the land by Israel were not, in fact, completely driven out. Judges 2:1-3 relates to us God's chastisement and the consequences: "...ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you."

Later, in the same chapter, Joshua's generation passes off the scene and the new generation "knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel" (2:10). So they forsook the Lord, chased after other gods, fell into sin, captivity, and then mourning until God "raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them" (2:16).

Of course, the repentance didn't stick, and not long after the deliverance the people "returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way" (2:19).

God's chosen people went through the same cycle over and again. No one benefited from the previous failures. At least, they didn't benefit in any way significant enough to break the cycle. And we can be the same way. Below is a piece that I wrote quite some time ago as a reflection of my own struggle with this cycle of failure.

We crumble to pieces and completely fall apart, broken over the same rock again and again.
Gasping for life and choking on death, we are frantic for rescue. But failure is the current: strong and relentless.
Thrown upon the shore, we are battered, frightened, disillusioned, remorseful, ashamed, but resolute in our desire to improve.
Our strength to stand is gathered; strength to move is gradually coming. We must move forward and away.
Danger falls with the tide and a shadow is cast over our memory of the very real danger.
Giant rocks appear above the surface and knowing their location allows for distance and security.
The beach is a beautiful place, so warm and inviting. The sunrise is awesome; paralyzing.
The strength to move melts into a desire to stay and dwell in this calm, serene and safe glory.
Tides are rising and the jagged rocks are disappearing, waves breaking against them.
Water touches our feet, but the scenery and comforts are captivating.
So we crumble to pieces and completely fall apart, over the same rock we are broken again.
Gasping for life, choking on death, we are frantic for rescue, but failure is the current; strong and relentless.
Thrown upon the shore we are battered, frightened, disillusioned, remorseful and ashamed.
We embrace a new resolve to stand and then to move, move far forward, and away.
But danger falls with the tide and a shadow is cast over our memory of very real danger.
And we stay, and we fail.

How can we use hindsight to live right? I think the answer is back in the book of Judges. We know that the people did not obey God and then their children did not remember God. When Christ is speaking to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, He tells them to use hindsight ("Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen") and then to repent of their sin and "do the first works" (v.5).

Much like the folks in Scripture, the key to utilizing hindsight for our betterment is learning from it. Remember, repent, and do. Take an action. Don't get lulled back to sleep by near misses. We are far too often like one who dozes off while driving and drifts into oncoming traffic. The flashing lights and blaring horns wake us up, but too often we keep driving rather than use our second chance to get off the road.

The beginning of a New Year is as good a time as any to reflect on failures of the past, repent, and then resolve to do what is right. And if you dig into the Bible, you can benefit from hindsight that stretches thousands of years into the past. As you learn lessons from people of long ago, you can be armed with something that looks an awful lot like foresight. This is because no matter how much the world changes, principles of godliness and right living never will.