Where Do YOU Live?

Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead

Philippians 3:13 

 

Let me ask you something, where do YOU live?  Now that may sound silly, but this is one of the most frequent issues I deal with when conducting counseling sessions.  The fact of the matter is we all have a past, and there are parts of it we wish we could get a "do-over" or we could bury where it would disappear.  I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't have something in their past that they hope never comes to light.   We make mistakes....some of them HUGE...some cause us an ache we cannot seem to be rid of.  

The past is so powerful that it can make a person fearful of trying again. The past is so powerful that it can make a person live the rest of their life just going through the motions.  The past is so powerful that it can paralyze a person with shame so they cannot see beyond their past.  The past is powerful BUT God is more powerful!!!

10 years ago, I was so worried about my past that I sought counseling from one of my mentors.  He didn't tell me what I wanted to hear, instead he asked me a question: "You dug up a corpse, drag it around with you, and you wonder why your life stinks?" To say that I was stunned would be the biggest understatement of my life up to that point.  I had never thought about my past as being a corpse.  My mentor, being the wise person that they are, followed that up with: "As a child of God, why would you punch Him in the face?  You have been forgiven yet you want to keep digging up that nasty dead past and parade it around like a trophy!  You want me to feel sorry for you because of your past? Think again!  YOU have a new address and it's not in the past!  Best start living in the new address GOD gave you!"

 

Truth be told, I had to take a very long hard look at my life.  I had to do some deep soul searching.  I had to do a lot of praying for help.  And, true to form, God revealed that there were changes I needed to make.  One of them was to accept that my past is part of what had helped shape me into the awesomeness you see today. 

 

The past is the past, we don't live there anymore.  The future is the future, we don't live there yet.  We live now!