Before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, angels of the Lord rescued Lot and his family. ‘When they had brought them outside…he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed”’ (v. 17 NKJV). But the record reads: ‘His wife looked back… and…became a pillar of salt.’ There’s an important lesson here for each of us: resist the temptation to linger in the quicksand of past mistakes – either your own or other people’s. It can be hard to see ahead when horrendous things have happened to you in the past. But when you get bogged down in the past, you miss what God has for you in the present, and fail to see its connection to your future. The good news is that it’s not too late to allow God to use you and move you forward on your journey. He can heal the wounds others have inflicted on you. He can make you wiser as a result of the poor decisions you made in the past. It’s not too late to become who you might have been. God delights in transforming our weakness into strength. He can create treasure from what you’ve discarded as rubbish. Even if you’ve backslidden and detoured from the path you know He wants you to follow, now is the time to return to His road. ‘“I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope”’ (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT). So move forward – and don’t look back.