What we can learn from Lot’s wife – approaching the new year.
New Years is usually a time I reflect on the year gone by and all that has happened. This year is certainly no exception. While my ponderings take me through the highs and lows, there is something beautifully different this year. My mind does not linger as it used to, on the painful memories or regretful moments. Somehow in all the craziness of this year, my mind and spirit are quickened by God’s sovereignty in all of it. It’s as if I can see God’s fingerprint in all that has taken place this year. And so, my annual reflection turns into a song of praise for all the beauty and wonder that God has worked out this year. It’s this kind of remembering of God’s goodness that we are encouraged to do in scripture:
Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. – Isaiah 46:9
Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. – Lamentations 3:21-23
When we remember what God has done, what he has promised and spoken, our faith is strengthened, and fear and doubt lose their power in our lives. I believe that this remembering must be actively encouraged and practiced. I personally do this by journaling, reading scripture and sharing God’s faithfulness with my friends and family. So, when fear has a grip on me, it will be a reminder shared by a friend, a scripture or my own writings that break those chains and give me faith to move beyond doubts.
As much as I could go on about the importance of remembering God’s goodness, it is not the central thought that prompted me to write this post – or the title for that matter. It’s very relevant, yes, but my inspiration finds its beginning with a scripture I read in Luke:
“Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.” – Luke 17:32-33
The verse is found amid Jesus warning his disciples about the time to come – the time of God’s kingdom. While there is much that can be said about these verses, what caught my attention was Jesus’ reference to Lot’s wife.
Lot was the nephew of Abraham and he lived with his wife and daughters in Sodom. God had decided to destroy both the city of Sodom and Gomorrah but sent Angles to warn Lot and urge him to leave the city. As the family is taken by the angles and sent on their way, they receive this warning:
“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!” – Genesis 19:17
However, as the family reaches safety and burning sulfur begins to rain on the cities, well…
“But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” – Genesis 19:26
A pillar of salt. She didn’t get struck dead or consumed by fire – as it’s found in other occasions in scripture. No, she turned into a solid pillar of salt. A passage I have heard and read about several times, suddenly got me questioning:
- Why did turned into a solid pillar?
A solid pillar is unable to move, it is “stuck” in one position. I believe Lot’s wife symbolizes what happens to us, when we look back in our lives. We get stuck. I am not refering to times we recount events with people or try to remember an occasion in the past. Rather, it’s the moments when we find ourselves unable to let go of what was, maybe even long to return to a different time in our lives, that we get stuck. We no longer move forward, but instead are held in a space in the past by an an invisible force. And while the world keeps turning our minds and hearts are frozen in time.
In my life, this has happened with the end of a relationship or any undesirable change in my life. My mind would then get lost in memories of the past, going through all kinds of “What if’s” and “If onlys”. And while the changes would ripple into forward movement around me, my mind would be stuck. Until I’d find a place and the strength to let go, to turn forward, to trust God and move on. Easier said than done, I know. It’s nevertheless, the vivid image I take from Lot’s wife.
It’s not just this image of a solid pillar that I have pondered on. As I was walking this evening, I had another question:
- Why a pillar of salt?
Why not a pillar of stone, marble, or any other solid material? Well, after some praying and pondering here are my thoughts:
- Salt was and is used as a preservative. It keeps things from expiring or in our example from further developing.
- Salt dissolves in water. Which means, that after some rain, a pillar of salt would have dissolved into the ground, no longer to be seen or remembered.
So, this is what I took from the pillar of salt: When we live in the past – look back – we no longer move forward. We are preserved in the past and no longer develop. And as we cease to impact the world around us, which is moving forward, well… in the worst case, we slowly dissolve.
Going back to the passage in Luke 17. Jesus urges his followers, that whoever tries to keep their life will lose it. And whoever loses their life will preserve it.
(see the play of words here 😉 “preserve” – “salt”?)
I used to look back to my rebellious days with almost a sense of longing or at least feeling as if that part of my life deserved to be remembered as a part of me. The consequence of this, was an ongoing battle with past sins and thought patterns.
At some point God showed me that holding on to this part of my life was keeping me from moving into what he had for me.
For he promises:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2. Corinthians 5:17
It was when I began to let go of that part of my life – losing it – that I found a beautiful new life. We all can have excuses for holding on to our past. And change is not always easy to embrace. However, when we believe that God’s will is good, and he is for us, all knowing and all loving, we should find our eyes, eagerly gazing ahead. For the fulfilment of his promises and his providence, they are before us. And so, approaching this new year, I challenge you:
Don’t look back!
Remember God’s goodness in your life. Let go. Find his truth and promises for your life in his word. And then, take a leap of faith into the unknown.
Happy New Year.
Bibs Blog 