Article September 29, 2014 Issue

Don't look back

Katherine Stephen

Have you ever experienced the temptation to look back at a difficult situation that you were healed of or removed from, whether it was a physical problem, unhappy circumstances, or an emotional challenge? I know I have. Even after a healing through Christian Science, I’ve found myself tempted sometimes to wonder about the problem or even mentally relive the scenario, thinking perhaps: “That was challenging. I wonder why that happened.”

But I’ve learned that giving in to the temptation to look back or ruminate is counterproductive. Being grateful for a lesson learned from a difficult experience is certainly a component of healing, but it does not involve dwelling on error, on a blameworthy, false mortal sense of ourselves.

In both the Old and the New Testament, the Bible indicates that in all things the direction to look is forward. St. Paul describes the importance of going forward in his statement in Philippians: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (3:13, 14).