It makes a big difference how much time we spend looking forward to what’s coming our way, and how much time we spend looking backward at where we’ve been. At least it does in driver’s education. I remember my driver’s ed instructor telling us to look in our rearview mirrors once every two seconds — which seems like bad advice to give to a bunch of literalistic teenagers.
The past year has been this odd dance of ever-changing realities and downright monotony. We have completely shifted how we live. From shopping to Sunday school, nothing is the same. All the while, this new way of living has meant staring at the same walls, the same Zoom screen and the same people day after day. Waking up to wonder what crazy thing happened while I slept, while at the same time realizing that today’s schedule will essentially look like yesterday’s, has pretty much sucked the creative lifeblood right out of me.
The Book of Lamentations begins with these words: How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her (Lam. 1:1–2a).