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Enjoy Life, Enjoy God


Dale Patterson

RETROSPECT

June 9, 2010

Retro = back, backwards; spect = to look. We're also told that retrospect yields 20-20 vision. Maybe.

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At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
- John 12:16 TNIV

It was retrospect that played a significant role in the understanding of the faith. We live in a world of front or forward-spect. We want to understand before we believe. Biblically-speaking, often it doesn't work that way. Faith precedes understanding. Many followed Jesus prior to having "figured it out!" yet they followed. It was in light of resurrection and events following that they looked back and said,
Oh, now I get it. Psalm 22, "Why have you forsaken me?" Or "riding on a donkey" of Zechariah 9:9,
and on and on. This is NOT a defect in their faith or ours, nor is it a reconstruction of what happened, but a staggering human truth.

A look back, retrospect, is sometimes as good as a pair of corrective eyeglasses. Maybe we would do well today in faith to take a look back for a bit, to see what we've missed or even been wrong about.
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson