Rearview

TobyMac's “Rearview” is a candid song about leaving the past behind. The first verse begins with waking from a bad dream. The singer did what his father did when he walked out on the family, and the trauma left everyone scrambling for cover. Now he is haunted by the question whether the apple fell far enough from the tree.

Fear shapes him like a sculptor, and a relationship that pulls him down keeps coming back, so he calls himself bad with it. The chorus is the decision: he has hit valleys but passed through them, sees failures but cannot lose, and has put his trouble in the rearview. The second verse admits that he keeps going back and forth like the ocean, trying to move ahead while the past is ferocious. Heavy days turn to heavy nights, but heavy love makes a burden light, and there is only one he can turn to, the King of today and the King of his rearview. He calls God's mercy his greatest gift. The beat is bright, the chant of we're movin' on is easy to join, and the story behind it is honest about a father's absence and the fear of repeating it. It suits a youth group, a recovery meeting or anyone who needs to hear that a painful history does not have to define the road ahead.

Forgetting what is behind is Philippians 3:13-14. A new thing in the wilderness is Isaiah 43:18-19, and casting burdens on the Lord is Psalm 55:22.