“After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.”

We can’t always just go forward and expect that everything behind us, in the past, is going to be fine. If it was that easy, we’d train someone once and then be done and they’d be perfect from that point on.  Ha!  How often does that happen?  Never, if ever!  We have to double back to be sure that where we were is still how we left it and whatever we provided is sticking.  Too often we have people on our teams who don’t want to double back for fear of not seeing the results they expect, or the fear of missing out on what is on front of them.  We don’t want to be looking over our shoulders but there is something to be gained in doubling back, just to be sure.

Paul wanted to double back with Barnabas to be sure that the new believers they’d taught were doing well and that what they had learned was being followed.  With all the new territories and areas that Paul needed to cover, for him to double back was a big commitment and potentially a big sacrifice, so it reminds me that we need to constantly be doubling back to be sure that we haven’t lost ground and that we are still growing, and our areas of focus are sticking. Sometimes, we can’t see where we have come to if we don’t go back and remind ourselves from where we started, fixing what needs to fixed and then moving forward from an even stronger foundation. That’s how we build upon growth.

Reference: Acts 15:36 (New Living Translation)