Don't Look BackUzorak

Lot’s wife gets one cameo in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. That’s it. That’s all the Scripture records. Why would Jesus tell us to remember a woman who appears on the pages of Scripture only long enough to disappear? A woman who has the shortest bio ever? A woman whose proper name we don’t even know? What is it about her that we’re to remember?

As I began to study her life, I noted something very important. This woman was told one thing: “Don’t look back,” and the one thing she was told not to do is the one thing she did. Furthermore, I found that understanding how she looked back quite possibly held a clue as to why she looked back: “But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she became a pillar of salt.”

She looked back longingly…in an act of disobedience. I don’t want to be harsh about Lot’s wife. We all make mistakes, and we all disobey, and to think she looked back longingly causes me to feel for her. Here she was living her life as usual and suddenly she’s told to pack up and run for her life. All the while an angel is holding her hand and guiding her.

Lot’s wife looked back, longingly. To look back longingly is to look back with a yearning desire.I have found that if we linger too long where we’re not supposed to be, we’ll start longing for what we are supposed to no longer be lingering in. When we linger, we hesitate. The literal meaning of linger is “to be slow in parting. To remain in existence although waning in strength. It’s to procrastinate.” And it includes one more eerily accurate depiction: “To remain alive although gradually dying.” Lot’s wife might not have had any idea that looking back would cause her death, but it did, didn’t it?

Are you longing for something that once was? That is no more? That can never be again?

Are you lingering there in that place where you should no longer be lingering?

Are you lingering in a place and longing for what was, all the while tolerating what is, all in hopes that if you linger long enough, you might get back what God told you to leave?

When Lot’s wife longed and lingered, she stopped and looked back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience. Then, she became calcified and stuck, frozen in time, paralyzed for eternity as a pillar of salt. I’m Greek, and because I was raised to salt food generously, I love salt. But I don’t want to get stuck and turn into a pillar of salt. I imagine you don’t either. But in a sense, I find that getting stuck like she did is so easy to do.

We can get stuck in our emotions,
our thoughts,
our attitudes,
our opinions,
our possessions,
our plans,
our desires,
our habits,
our comfort,
our pain,
our wounds,
our relationships,
our past,
our present,
or even our future hopes.

It's not always easy to move on when God beckons us forward, especially when things are safe, comfortable, and just the way we like it. Equally, it is often difficult to move on when we have experienced deep trauma, pain, or suffering, and feel utterly hopeless and helpless. Moving on is something we know we should do, what we often want to do, and at times what we actually refuse to do, but it remains something God eagerly wants for us. Wherever you may be on this continuum, it is my prayer that you will be able to identify places where you are prone to be stuck, or maybe are stuck, and that you will be infused with the strength of the Holy Spirit to take the next step to getting unstuck.