20/20 Hindsight

20/20 Vision and 20/20 Hindsight

Normal vision is called 20/20. Therefore, 20/20 hindsight is the ability to see something done and understand it more fully or to get it right. For most of us, hindsight is our normal approach. We do something and then look at the results and think, “that was dumb!” Hindsight is insight into the significance and nature of an event or action after the event or action is past. I have lots of hindsight. I can see clearly now.

The list is endless. Words I have said that I should not have said. Things I should have done that I did not do. “Investments” that were speculative and became worthless. Cars that I sold that I should have kept and opportunities that I missed.

Thankfully, there is one decision that I made that I have not regretted. I decided to become a disciple of Jesus. When I made that decision, it seemed like the only viable option. As a sinner, I knew enough of the Bible and of my own heart to realize that my path was going to lead to destruction. Even before I was a teenager, I knew my best deeds were just dirty rags. So I decided to follow the one who said he came to “seek and save the lost.” I was lost, and I needed to be saved. I have not been everything I need to be, but he has always been more than sufficient in every area of life.

It Will Be Worth It All

There was a young man who used to come to sing at Garfield Baptist Church in Wauwatosa each year. He was, if my memory is correct, afflicted with Down Syndrome or something like it. However, that did not diminish his faith in God and his love for his Savior. The song he always sang when he came to represent Shepherds Home (now Shepherds College), was “It Will Be Worth It All.” The song begins with this phrase: “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!”

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

A follower of Jesus counts the cost to be a disciple. Actually, the cost is minimal, even if in the present it seems outrageous. The reason is that when we look back, we have joy, and understand that it was worth it all. Making decisions with 20/20 vision about the future is better than making bad decisions and realizing that they were dumb.

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:28-33

John 13:35 Love One Another

Lyrics for It Will Be Worth It All

1. Sometimes the day seems long, Our trials hard to bear.

We´re tempted to complain, to murmur and despair.

But Christ will soon appear to catch his bride away!

All tears forever over in God’s eternal day!

CHORUS:

It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!

Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ.

One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will erase.

So, bravely run the race till we see Christ.

2. At times the sky seems dark, with not a ray of light.

We’re tossed and driven on, no human help in sight.

But there is One in heaven, Who knows our deepest care;

Let Jesus solve your problems, just go to him in prayer.

3. Life’s day will soon be o’re, all storms forever past;

We’ll cross the great divide to Glory, safe at last!

We’ll share the joys of heaven: a harp, a home, a crown;

The tempter will be banished, We’ll lay our burdens down.

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five-Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.