Accepting the Past

An older pastor friend told me some years back that when you reach your 50’s you become a little more emotionally sensitive and reflective about your life.  I would not call him a prophet, just someone who had experienced that in his own life. Now that I have been there for a few years, I can say he is right.  I seem to be more reflective these days than in the past.  It is possibly due to the loss of my mother and the subsequent selling of my childhood home in the past couple of years that has caused me to access my past more intentionally.  Overall I would evaluate my past as mostly positive.  Unlike many children today, I grew up in a stable home.  I grew up in a Mayberry-like town until leaving for college in Texas.  Pursuing my life’s direction went according to my schedule.   Marriage, first major job, children, not without some difficult times, but overall life has been pretty good.

It takes a lot of years to truly be reflective about your life.  We tend to sum up our lives by significant events, whether good or bad, when really we need to look at the totality of our life.  As I watch my grandson, I can recall when his father's screaming seemed to be never ending.  In reality, it happened but not all the time. The same is true for us. We may have had a failed relationship or made a bad business decision, but have we truly failed in every aspect of life?

My past has been marked by events that have been both positive and shameful.  I, like many others, would love to go back and change some situations, decisions, or things said that I am not proud of.  However, we know life doesn’t work that way.  Life is ever moving forward.  We have a choice to stay back in an unchangeable past or move forward to a better tomorrow.  As a pastor, I often counsel people who claim to be Christians, but are ashamed of their past.  In fact, their past holds them in bondage from moving forward to God’s plan for their lives.  Their shame causes them to live contrary to the promises of God that tell us that when we come to Christ in heartfelt repentance, he makes our lives new.  The past is forgotten and our lives are made new.  Like Nicodemus, I have the possibility to be “born again” with a new start and a new life in Christ.

I have learned to accept that which cannot be changed in my past and learned to embrace the truth that God can change my future by making all things new as he remakes me.

Come see us Sunday.  We will talk about that.
Pastor Jeff