In this Random Nun Clip, a listener feels like Lot's Wife, looking longingly at the past then getting stuck, unable to move ahead. Hear the full podcast at AS151.
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SISTER MAXINE: This question comes in from Michael in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He writes, “I was let go from a job that I’ve had the pleasure of for nine years. It was a real blow. It was devastating.” And Michael adds, “I can’t seem to move on and I feel stuck like Lot’s wife. I do have a job but the adjustment is taking some time and I keep thinking of how good I had it.” Michael continues, “I feel that I’ve turned into a pillar of salt and I don’t know how to stop looking back. I’ve been asking God for help too. I’d love to hear what you have to say.”
SISTER JULIE: Oh Michael, I am so sorry to hear about the job loss, although very thankful that you do have a new job. Indeed, it is tough to let go of something that we didn’t choose to part ways with. Before we get much further in responding to Michael, I love that he uses the imagery of Lot’s wife and you know, when you look at the Scripture, there’s hardly anything written about this whole scenario. We certainly know the whole story of the angels going to Sodom, and Lot of course, being a righteous kind of guy, his family is saved and we see reference to his family and his wife. And then there’s just one single line about Lot’s wife and the pillar of salt and it says, “Lot’s wife was behind him and she stopped and looked back and became a pillar of salt.” That’s the only reference and Lot and the family don’t even, you know, kind of remark this. That’s the only line we have and yet this image is so lodged in our collective minds that you can see from Michael the whole story unfold and how you can really feel for Lot’s wife even though we know so little about it from Scripture.
SISTER MAXINE: And we can imagine that she is looking back at a life lived there and has turned around and looked back and now in a very literal way is stuck. And that’s the sort of feeling that Michael is describing in that powerful image when he says, “I am stuck.” So, on that level, the story of Lot’s wife symbolizing turning around to look at the past and getting stuck and what to do--lets talk about that. I suppose the bottom line, and it’s something we all know, this is not news, is that no matter how compelling, we cannot live in the past.
SISTER JULIE: But you know that very thing is news when you’re in that moment. When you’re in that moment, and you’re like, oh you know, it was so much better—I miss it. The common wisdom of: we know that it’s living in the past, it just doesn’t seem to apply to us anymore.
SISTER MAXINE: And it may be very compelling, as in the story of Lot and Lot’s wife, who weren’t supposed to look back, but that's a compelling thing to do. And yet, at the same time, we are called to let go of that past and move forward into the future.
SISTER JULIE: Yeah.
SISTER MAXINE: And unless we can start appreciating the past for what it is — I mean, I certainly think of times in my life where I look back and I thought, you know, "Did I do the right thing? I’m not sure?" and maybe for a little while I was a bit stuck, just in that transition. And we do have to give ourselves time to make those major life transitions, to go through that “I don’t know, I’m not sure” stage. S
SISTER JULIE: I always think about the things that have brought us to this moment. I mean they’re these good things. Sometimes they’re not the best things but they still bring us to this current moment and they deserve, in a way, to be cherished. But there’s a fine line between cherishing something like, “Aw, this brought me to this moment,” and clinging to it and not letting it be where it is, which is in the past.
SISTER MAXINE: Right! And also thinking, "There’s never going to be another moment like that," and if we approach it that way, there probably won’t be...
SISTER JULIE: Right, right.
SISTER MAXINE: And to look forward in a life-giving way is so important and to trust God in that.
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Hear the full episode of this Ask Sister podcast at AS151.
