The Windshield Is Bigger Than the Rearview Mirror: Changing Your Focus from Past to Promise

This book has a lot of great scriptural references and cute stories. I read this book as a refuge from heartache and it was a very worthy and useful distraction. My only complaint is that there is some repetition in this book and by the end, it became a bit difficult to complete, as I felt that there was not much new information.

Reading about real life stories of people today, juxtaposed with examples of people in the Bible who faced tremendous trials and how they overcame them, gave me assurance and confidence that regardless of the intensity or enormity of my trial, I can overcome with Jesus' help and crossover to the side of victory. Pastor Wickwire speaks from personal experience and shares the emotional trauma he has endured through trials (dispelling the notion that once you become a Christian you're insulated from trouble). He gives honest, practical, biblically based answers for handling trials when they come. Beyond that, the tone of the book is uplifting and inspiring. A clear picture of how to take the sting out of disappointment, and how to get on the road to healing from the trauma of a devastating trial, is presented with compassion, heart-felt understanding, encouragement, and wisdom. Additionally, the descriptions and examples Pastor Wickwire uses to make a point are incredibly poignant...I felt like I was there in the car with his wife when the gas pedal got stuck while she was driving. It was hard to put this book down because it touched my heart so deeply. Many times while reading I had to say, "Yes, Amen." I bookmarked the page with this statement: "Like a surgeon's scalpel, the word of God is uniquely equipped to reach into the delicate corners of our soul and operate on the festering sources of ongoing traumatic pain." I will keep this book handy for my next trial so I can feed my faith and keep hope alive.

The Windshield Is Bigger Than the Rearview Mirror is an important book for Christians. If you're a believer, you know Satan wants to make us as ineffective as possible. One subtle way this can happen is for us to become focused on our past--to the point that it keeps us from moving ahead. Throughout Windshield, Jeff Wickwire serves as a coach. He cites several red flags that signal we may be holding on to our past in an unhealthy way. Among them: * You long excessively for a past time or place. * You are preoccupied excessively with an event or events, a person or people. * Vivid, recurring memories conjure fear, guilt, anger or bitterness. Throughout history, people have become so fixated on the past that they miss God's promise. Remember the Israelites? Although God parted the Red Sea for them and wiped out their enemy, they wanted to go back to Egypt, their land of "comfort"...the very place they had been held captive. Are we any different today? In a world where absolute truth is diminishing, "The truth will (still) set you free." Once we identify the chains that are keeping us stuck in the past, we can trust God to remove the traps and set us free.

The more we look backward, says Jeff Wickwire, the less we're able to see forward. Our nostalgia-obsessed culture cultivates the notion that the past is better than the present and is certainly better than anything in our future. But Wickwire explains that, while referring to the past can be biblical and healthy, focusing too closely on the past can become counterproductive, hinder our spiritual growth and rob us from attaining the goals that God has set before us. Great balance between warm conversational tone, great anecdotes and great Bible teaching. Foreword by Tommy Tenney, endorsements by John Bevere, James Robison, Bishop Harry Jackson. Not a book to miss!