Something Else Is Following

Ashamed of the poor, dysfunctional circumstances of his childhood, Pip, the protagonist of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, said—at least in the movie version, “I don’t want before to follow me.” He was trying to cast off the past to live a new life facilitated by having become a beneficiary of wealth from an anonymous source. Despite his wishes, BEFORE not only followed him, it caught up. It always does. As certain as the law of gravity is the fact that our past, particularly our sin, follows us. It is painful when our past sins catch up with us. It will be more painful to believe they are no longer following us, will never catch up with us, only to discover that they have overtaken and bypassed us and are waiting to greet us when we arrive in eternity. No wonder those who repent and trust in Christ for forgiveness rejoice: Sins are not following the repentant; neither are they waiting for him at the judgment. Well, not the guilt or penalty of those sins. Even for the repentant, the consequences of one’s sins, the consequences of the before of his Christian life, follow and catch up. The longer I live the more I see the reality of “whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap.” The before follows and catches up. If you aren’t so sure about this, think of just one example—posts on social media. Posts from years past have caught up at one’s job interview and cost that one employment. This reality of the past, the before following and catching up, I did not share to despair or discourage, but to annunciate that there is something else that follows us as well—God’s goodness and mercy. The Christian is thrilled to discover that not only do the consequences of his past sins follow along behind him, but so do God’s goodness and mercy (“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” Psa 23:6.) When the consequences of my past catch up with me, mercy and goodness will also catch up. I have always wondered about that ending of the bucolic, poetic, Psalm 23. Why are “goodness and mercy” FOLLOWING. Are they keeping their distance? Did the psalmist outpace them? Why aren’t goodness and mercy right there with him? Why aren’t they already there ahead, waiting in the place of the crisis on hand for when he gets there? Why only following? Why not walking right beside? Being behind, do they never catch up until he gets to the House of the Lord? Some read “follow” as pursue. God is so loving He sends His goodness and mercy chasing after an errant, undeserving one. Certainly, so. But, what about this scenario. You find yourself trekking through a hostile desert. You run out of water. You have no strength to go an inch forward to possible water ahead. Even if going back to a past watering hole were an option, you are too weak to make it. At that moment you remember that you had news that a caravan carrying water and supplies was traveling just behind you. The water that has been following you catches up to you when you need it most. Had it not been following, you would have perished. How many times, had not God’s goodness and mercy been following us, we would have found ourselves in a condition that would have terminated us? So, yes, our past follows us. Yes, it often catches up leaving us immobilized, soul-dry, despaired, discouraged, and desperate. But, there is something else following too. Goodness and mercy. They catch up too.

Something Else Is Following

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