Backwards

Introduction
Do we live life looking to what lies ahead or looking back?

Game Description
Students will navigate across a room looking into a mirror.

Game Materials

• Hand held mirrors (or better - rear view mirrors from a car)
• Obstacles

Game Preparation
Place obstacles randomly distributed around the the game play area

Game Play
Everyone must walk BACKWARDS from one side of the area to the other using only mirrors to see. You can do this as a relay race between teams or as individual participants.

Variations
Allow someone else to hold the mirror while a participant races forward.

Take it to the next level

• Was it difficult to move forward while looking backward? Why?
• What are some of the difficulties faced when we are focused on looking back?
• How is this activity similar to focusing on our past and future?
• What lessons can we learn?

Debrief
If you have ever driven a car, you can glance from time to time in the rear view mirror. As we move forward we regularly glance at it to keep us aware of what is behind us. The past makes us more knowledgeable and wiser. And in that regard, the past is good. But if you spend all your time looking in the rear view mirror you are sure to meet a disaster ahead. The same is true with life. We can learn some incredible lessons from looking back to the past. Someone has said that if you refuse to look to the past you are doomed to repeat it's errors. We can learn from the past to avoid making mistakes ahead. But past failures can also prevent us from moving forward and sometimes we have difficulty seeing beyond those failures to a brighter future.

The past can be good or bad.. We can be content with our past accomplishments as easily as we can live with regret for our past mistakes. We can look back to reproduce the success we have experienced. But we cannot be content living in the past with past successes. We will never grow and move forward.

"Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” —Luke 9:62, NIV

If you have ever mowed the grass with a lawnmower and then looked back, you’ll discover that you have often mowed in a crooked line. The key to mowing a straight line is to look ahead to a target or goal and move toward it. When you are mowing the lawn it is not so bad, because you can correct it by mowing over your mistake. When plowing a field, things are different. If you have plowed a crooked furrow in the field, you have to keep plowing crooked furrows to match your first rows. A person who plows has to keep his eyes fixed straight ahead on a goal or he’ll mess up the whole field.

Paul said: "...One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)

Paul chose the call of God in Christ as his goal to fix his eyes upon. With our eyes fixed upon Christ we will be able to keep our life straight. Don't focus on the Past! Look ahead! Look to Christ!