Last night a series of dreams lead to a place I had not been before. Everything looked familiar, but everything was different. In the end I was asked to go some place. Scene after scene reminded me of something out of our country’s past. Even as I walked past old buildings and beautiful meadows, in the dream I thought this feels like Shelburne Museum or something. At one point it reminded me of the defunct Frontier Town in New York. And then I came to the river…again. I had been here before but I could not remember how I crossed it the first time. I wandered the bank. I thought, “did I swim or take a boat?” Nothing clicked. I clearly was not getting to the other side. As I wandered back towards one of the villages, I thought about it. How would I explain it to others? I sensed defeat, at best failure.

I awoke and thought, “you can’t go back”. I began to ponder scripture and thought about the process. I realized that while God is a God of second chances, not everything has a second chance. There may be relationships that have exploded and are never recovered. There may be losses that have no retribution. And there may be no return.

There is so much revelation here but I am going to keep one thought here in simplicity.

We are in a time where wisdom is required. Where choices are critical. Where life is a bit more serious.

This is my thought. God may have you here for a time or a season in the geography you are in. You may be here forever or you may be here a year. I am convinced that while we may not have noticed initially, the standard was revealed. Living foolishly is for but a season. And then it gets serious. Making decisions out of unrenewed emotions is not wise. (Even as I write this I am getting flashes of people who are thinking they are going to “jump the tracks”. Sometimes there is the constraint of the Lord and other times He is “hands off”. Do you want to chance that? I hear the words “decidedly foolish”. Are you one of them?)

Sometimes you can’t go back. All the more reason to be wise in the going. I have come to the conclusion in my life that every step counts. None is wasted. But not all are profitable. For instance, only yesterday I thought how many parents (More so a single parent phenomenon.) want to be friends to their young child. It is not wise. I am going to say this and I hope you hear me. Be a friend to your child in their early life and you will be a parent later. Be a parent when they are young and you get to be a friend later. This is one of those “you can’t go back statements”.

Be sure where you are going. Clearly there is a reason that the scriptures indicate “thy word is a lamp unto my feet”…

There is another part to this. Those “older buildings” and villages. As much as I enjoy technology and the comforts, there is a part of me that cries out for the relationships and the people. Maybe just maybe we can’t leave that.