Facing the Unknown — Walking Backwards into the Future
Life is a winding road. There are breathtaking views and smooth stretches, but also sudden storms, steep drops, and sharp turns that often arrive without warning, shaking the ground beneath us.
Facing the Unknown — Walking Backwards into the Future
I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but this year I want to talk about something deeper: a true new beginning—the kind only Jesus gives. So let’s ask an important question: What does a real new beginning look like in the Bible, and how do we step into it?
Life is a winding road. There are breathtaking views and smooth stretches, but also sudden storms, steep drops, and sharp turns that often arrive without warning, shaking the ground beneath us.
The old rabbis thought of life as if we were walking through it backwards. In biblical thinking, the past is “in front of our eyes”—what we can see clearly—while the future lies “behind us”. We move forward through the days, yet we are facing backward, eyes fixed on what we have already lived through because that’s all we can see.
That image captures exactly how most of us feel as one year ends and another begins. We can look back at 2025—its joys, sorrows, surprises, and graces—but 2026 is completely out of sight. We don’t know what trials, opportunities, or changes wait just ahead.
That is why God gave us the Scriptures. The Bible isn’t a rulebook or a history lesson; it’s a living invitation into relationship with the One who sees the entire road. Because we cannot see what is coming, we need the One who stands outside of time and holds every tomorrow in His hands.
God reminds His people, even in times of uncertainty and exile:
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” —Jeremiah 29:11
Again and again, He reassures us:
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.” —Isaiah 41:10
God’s promise is not that the path will be easy, but that He will never leave the path—or us.
As we stand on the edge of a new year, we are faced with a choice: we can step into the unseen alone, or we can step into it with Jesus. A genuine new beginning is not about turning over a new leaf in our own strength; it is about trusting the One who already knows every step we will take.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at what it means to become brand new in Him.
