By Jessica Brodie

The older I get, the more I have to work a little harder just to maintain my physique. For example, I used to eat what I wanted, and my metabolism would automatically take care of things. Now I actually have to pay attention to eating right in order to stay in shape. Or stretching—there was a time I was naturally flexible. Now I have to stretch most days to stay limber and not feel tense or stiff.

There’s a stretch I do sometimes where I have to bend at the waist, lean way over, and then look through my legs. It’s way more effective than just touching the ground. Looking in the other direction takes my stretch a little deeper, and I get more benefit out of it. But it’s funny to look at if you happen to catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. Your feet are pointing one way and your head’s going in the opposite direction.

There’s a word I learned recently, Sankofa. A principle in West Africa, Sankofa is a Twi word from the Akan tribe in Ghana that translates literally to “go back and get it.” The concept embraces the notion of looking to the past in order to inform the future—basically, looking backwards to move ahead. It’s often represented visually by a mythical bird. Its head is pointed backwards, but its feet face forward—probably a little bit like my stretch, but I imagine vastly more graceful-looking.

The idea behind Sankofa is that we can learn much about our future and how to navigate difficult times ahead by looking to the old ways, which can help us understand where we are and how we got here, as well as undergird our work with a strength that is hard to break. For example, if we understand how we as a church operated in the Great Depression, or when so many Black church leaders were being murdered in the 1960s, we can better understand how to navigate politics, government, racism, financial issues, and other problems. If we look back at time we went astray and acted out of selfish, inward-facing motives rather than a love-thy-neighbor mentality, we can perhaps guard against returning to those inclinations.

Often in Christianity, we’re encouraged to let the past go. This is a good and godly thing. After all, sometimes what came before is tainted by sin and darkness, or it prevents us from living fully in God’s truth today. I love the concept from the apostle Paul’s second letter to the early church in Corinth that we are liberated from the past. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (NIV). For those of us with much shame we’re eager to let go of, the idea of being a new creation in Christ is a welcome one, offering redemption and cleansing, the chance to start over fresh and brand new. Other verses echo this, such as Luke 9:62, when Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” And as Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Yet sometimes, we must look backwards for a short time to move ahead in long-term liberation and redemption, to embrace the saving truth of the Gospel.

For instance, some people are haunted by a wrong done to them, even something that happened many years ago. They’ve tried without success to “let it go” or to let time serve as a balm to make forgiveness easier. So for them, perhaps looking backwards can help them heal and finally achieve the Christian liberation in the future they so desperately crave.

Or let’s say you did something wrong in your youth, something you can’t seem to stop beating yourself up about. You think you’ve left it behind, and you asked for forgiveness, yet it keeps cropping up in dreams, in the dark of night, reminding you that while God has forgiven you, you’ve not forgotten it.

In these cases, it’s a good thing to look back in order to go forward, to “go back and get it” by facing the past so you can move on into God’s gloriously good future, a good future he intends for us.

While Jesus said not to put a hand to the plow and look back, consider that he also said we must right old wrongs in order to be in alignment with the Lord. As he taught in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:21-24, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

The idea of going back in order to move ahead is sometimes necessary. Don’t spend much time there in the past—don’t linger or wallow in the memories or the guilt or the pain. But if you need to let the healing light of the Lord shine into the darkness of the past in order to fully embrace his perfect and blessed present, do so.

We can trust that armed with the saving, healing light of Christ, we can shine his cleansing power into the darkness. As Paul writes in Ephesians 5:13-14, “Everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”

The lessons of our past can shape our future in a positive, affirming, Christ-centered way as long as we remember that looking backwards is healthy as long as our gaze remains firmly fixed on the direction of tomorrow—God’s eternal glory.

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