The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. – Deuteronomy 11:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 10, 2012): Deuteronomy 11

One of the most dangerous phrases that I hear is that ‘we have never done it that way before.’ The phrase is a cousin of ‘we have always done it this way’ and of ‘we have tried that but it did not work.’ The phrase is dangerous because sometimes they are valid statements that need to be heard, but sometimes they also form a straightjacket that restrict us from doing what it is that we need to do.

‘We have never done that before’ does not mean that we do not need to do it now. In the same way ‘we have always done it this way’ does not mean that that is appropriate to continue to do it that way. And failing at something in the past actually tells us very little, because there can be so many reasons that things did not work – including the fact that we might have been just a little ahead of our time. Each situation needs to be evaluated on its own merit, rather than just on what we have done in similar situations in the past.

It is the message that Moses wants Israel to understand as they stood on the edge of the Promised Land. The stories that they had heard about Egypt from their parents and their own experiences in the desert will not match what is ahead of them. The future would be different from anything that they knew from before. They would need to develop a teachable and flexible nature if they were going to be able to succeed in the future.

We live in a fast changing world and we know that reality. From day to day there is absolutely no guarantee that the experiences of the past will help us as we move into the future. Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet about death by saying –

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

But Hamlet’s words make sense as they refer to our future as well. Tomorrow is the undiscovered country we know not of. And the best that we can do is make the most of today and be flexible as move into tomorrow and the demands that the undiscovered country will make of all of us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 12