“See the LORD your God has given the land to you; go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you; do not fear or be dismayed. All of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land for us and bring a report to us regarding the route by which we should go up and the cities we will come to.’ The plan seemed good to me, and I selected twelve of you, one from each tribe. . . . They brought back a report to us, and said, ‘It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us. But you were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘It is because the LORD hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt. To hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us. Where are we headed?” Deuteronomy 1:21-23, 25b-28a

Where are we headed? A great question to ask, a great question to be answered – individually, as families, as congregations, as communities, as the people of God. Keep it simple. As an individual where am I headed? Am I dreaming of returning to the past or am I trusting to journey into the future? I have never seen anyone grow younger only older so doesn’t it seem logical to look to and journey into the future not dream about the past? As a believer, one who experiences ongoing salvation (I was saved, I am being saved, I will be saved some more), on a journey to complete and whole sanctification, why would I look back? Why would I desire to return to a time when I was less Christ-like than I am now? Why wouldn’t I desire the future where God promises I will be more Christ-like? Why as families, congregations, communities, and the people of God would we desire to return to the brokenness, the wandering in the wilderness all under the guise of the ‘Good Ole Days’? Where are we headed? O that I always go where God leads, when God leads, and that I look to the future and live into His promises.