St Andrews PCEA Church - Nairobi

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
A nostalgic  turning of eyes may effect a  regrettable change of heart
I grew up in an agricultural setting. Digging up to three acres of land with my cousin,  preparing the earth for planting, was one of our routine responsibilities. The time was January-February, when the sun was at its best.  Being a small scale outfit, the tool was a hoe, also called the jembe. We would get into the farm in the environment of 7am so that by 12pm we have stocked our mileage for the day.

As we hoed the land, we had this transistor Sanyo radio, with grey mica surfacing its sides and top. A cloth that had a hand-sewn flower design covered its front as it lay on the hot red earth. This radio in addition to feeding us with broadcasts, doubled as our yardstick. We always kept it ahead of us – a distance far enough to take an hour’s work before nearing it and shifting it again. Capture also that its volume had to be loud enough to serve even those working in neighboring shambas. Talk of a true sense of community, sharing even the radio service at no request of the neigbours! I cannot fail to recall that we would place the radio far out but near enough for us to throw a ball of earth to revive it when it suddenly went off despite having four new batteries!
By the time we shifted it the fourth time, we new we had worked and were doing our last hour for the day.
We always placed the radio ahead of us. In hindsight I wonder, why did we not place it behind us, and know how far we had worked by looking behind and seeing how far had left it?
Then I hear Jesus describe the person who starts a hold on His Kingdom then looks back as “unfit.”
Jesus’ description informs us that our faith is essentially a “looking forward” engagement.  The life of faith in Christ is a life of hope; a life of anticipation; a life of more - a Godly promise for tomorrow.
That Jesus calls the back-lookers “unfit” means that the Kingdom of God is not only cardinal but prime.  Commitment to God and Godliness is not just one amongst the things that you do - it is the thing that makes all other things happen.
This pronouncent of Christ is an alert that distracters are real.  Our environment is populated with events and people who whistle and bang with a determination to make us “look back.”  And the distractor that scores the “looking back” does not settle merely for a turning of eyes, it intends a change of heart.  A nostalgic turning of eyes may effect a regrettable abandon of gains.
If we are to look back, let it be only to the extent that it inspires our forwardness.
Let the transistor radio always be ahead of you.

Pastor Buri E