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Progress Toward What?
Weekly Edition #69: May 20th, 2026
Verse I Like:
“Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
Weekly Dose
I think we would be hard pressed to find any person that would disagree with the idea that “Progress is good.”
There may, however, be disagreements on what is meant by progress.
I think a bad way to define progress is simply as movement away from what was, or away from tradition. This is common today, and needs to be pushed back on.
Think of it like a car and a driver.
Progress could be defined as simply distance driven. But a better way to define progress is movement toward the destination.
If you drive 50 miles in the wrong direction, that is not progress.
The best thing you could do in that scenario is turn around and head the other way.
Movement is good, but make sure it is oriented toward something.
A step back may actually be a step closer.
Have the humility to admit it and act on it.
Quotes I Like:
“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
“When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
Mane Message
Going back can sometimes be equivalent to getting closer.
In the book of Ezra, the people of Israel are set to return to the Promised Land after exile.
At first glance, it almost feels backwards.
They are going back to old places, old laws, old customs, and old foundations.
But this is not regression.
It is progress.
Progress from the low of exile.
The people had wandered so far from what they were supposed to be that the only way forward was first to return.
That is a pattern that shows up constantly throughout life. Sometimes the most progressive thing a person can do is recover something lost or thrown out long ago.
The Israelites had to be humbled before they could properly receive what was already given to them.
That is the strange thing about exile throughout the Bible.
While it is certainly a punishment and a natural outcome of their actions, there is also an insistence that it is a preparation for something.
The exile stripped away illusions.
False gods, political strength, pride, and every other misaligned idol failed them.
And once those things were removed, the people were finally in a position to rebuild correctly.
We assume progress always looks like novelty—like something new and shiny.
But if the foundation is crooked, building further only deepens the problem.
Sometimes wisdom looks less like invention and more like repentance.
This requires humility, because turning around feels embarrassing to pride. Especially in a culture that treats reversal as weakness.
But throughout Scripture, God often brings people backward before bringing them forward.
Israel returns from exile. The prodigal son returns home. Peter returns after failure.
Even repentance itself is fundamentally a turning back.
Progress goes hand in hand with orienting ourselves to the truth.
Weekly Ponder
Are we progressing toward something, or merely away from something?
Is humility the hidden prerequisite for real progress?
Enjoying our Content?
Onward and Upward!
