There's a difference between 'turning back' and 'looking back' ...yet, both are conditional. What I mean to say by that is ...well, let me just say, there are times when both are a positive thing to do, and there are times it is not the best thing to do.

We have two kids in driver's education right now.  They must utilize their rear view mirror, and look back. That is definitely a good thing.

You are driving down an old dirt road, and encounter a roadblock.  A sign tells you to turn back ...the road ahead is washed out.  There had been a heavy rain recently.  It would be advisable to heed the warning, and turn back ...and it's also a good thing for drivers of all ages to not disregard traffic signs.

When is it not good to turn back?  

You are going to visit your brother who is in the hospital.  You start out, and begin to have those worrisome feelings again.  You haven't been on good terms with your brother, and have second thoughts about visiting him.  Well, it is my belief that you should not turn back.  Your brother is ill, and this is probably a good time to put the past behind you and try to make good with your brother.

When is it not a good time to look back?

I guess the tough lesson is what Lot's wife experienced.

Many people think it an honor to be a pillar of the community ...but it is doubtful Lot looked at his wife that way. Actually, he had warned her not to look.

Sometimes we need to separate ourselves from that which we have fallen into ...we need to change directions.  Looking forward is good when the past has been the cause of our falling away. But, when our past is good, looking forward may just be looking forward to mistakes.

God aimed to correct the mistakes ...after the people had allowed themselves to drift away from God's ways.  Repeating what we've done wrong, and not learning from the past causes many people pain and suffering.

Lot's family was at that critical point ...an allowance being made to spare them, but they were not to look back.

It can be phrased many different ways ...whether 'looking back', 'turning back', or 'returning'.

When the children of Israel were enslaved by Egyptian rule, there was a longing to 'return' to their land.  Most of us have heard the saying, "You can take him out of the country, but you can't take the country out of him."  Well, it was miraculous how they were delivered out of Egypt, but it would take a personal effort to get the way they had lived in Egypt out of them.  And the 10 Commandments addressed the things they were to work on.

God does not abandon us ...He will work with us through our struggles.  And though we may have a great love for God, we don't always understand Him.  At first, King David didn't want the ark of the covenant because he had difficulty with a decision God made.  And don't think we only have to learn a couple of lessons in our lifetime.  King David loved God, but had occasion to struggle with how to make that work on a human level.    

When the Bible says, "Return to your first love", it means something different than what many of us make it to mean.  

It is good to have cherished memories from our past ...we all should have some fondness we can look back to.  It is healthy if we have moments we are grateful for ...kind of the sentiment of celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving.

But, we should also have a good, healthy perspective ...and realize that though we have fond memories, we need to mature with them also.  Many things we look at as love, are not quite accurately so.  And to define true love, it may seem like our first vulnerable moment, a 'crush', or some other high moment in our life ...but, in it's purest form, God is love.

And when the Bible says we have lost that, it is because we drift away, get distracted, and move on ...to other things.