With hindsight we could make this world a better place. Our decision making would become sharper, life would be fuller and we would all be better off with the wisdom generated by hindsight. Life would be great.
If only!
Many times I have said ‘If only with hindsight’ ….
Would it only be wrongs I could correct; or maybe I would put in place actions that would be of benefit to mankind. Sure, some personal decisions could have made me a better person than I am, and maybe those around me would benefit from that. It would be great to make decisions that included hindsight – but that would then project those decision as part of the future and what would happen to hindsight? This is in danger of becoming very confusing!
‘Back in the day’ we just called it hindsight and had to live with the consequences of our decision making and actions. On occasions we may have lived with the consequence of something said or done and never quite been able to shake it off. It sits on our shoulders forever as a reminder.
I find more and more I use the expression, ‘Back in the day’. It’s new to my vocabulary, to my thinking process. I quite like it.
As an expression I find it useful as shorthand for periods of past times. I’m released from dates, appropriate reference marks, people or places, unless I want to put them in. It allows me to contribute in a positive way to conversations that I engage in. It also has the hidden side effect of making me feel younger, modern, and up to date. My past is hidden ‘back in the day’. Can I say with hindsight, I wish I had discovered this expression sooner? On reflection I find using the expression, ‘back in the day’ is really about the future. Something I’m doing now makes me reference my past life. Something is making me go to the past and is bringing it forward. My ownership of the past is being made relevant by my commentary on the present.
This is so much like the words and actions of Jesus. He continually referenced the past; ‘Before the world was, ‘I am’’, He continually looked to the the past and presented it into his timeframe, to his followers, the religious authority’s and to anyone who would listen; and much more than this he placed it into the future as well. We have to go ‘back in the day’ to see and hear of Jesus and this brings us wholeness and salvation today by being projected into the future.
God became God of the past, present and future. We have the Jesus of yesterday, today and tomorrow. If you read carefully you can almost hear Jesus say, ‘Back in the day’.
And on reflection I can only think of a couple of occasion when God used hindsight; it was when he reflected on things done ‘back in the day’?
Image Credit: Özgür Akman
