Dreaming of the 'Good Old Days'?

Don’t long for “the good old days.”
    This is not wise.

Ecclesiastes 7:10

I admit it...I like old cars.  There's just something about them that appeals to me.  This picture got me feeling rather nostalgic and I began remembering some of my yesterdays:

• Mom putting the roast into the oven when we left for church.  When we got home the house smelled wonderful.
• Riding my bicycle without a helmet.
• Having a rotary dial phone (only ONE phone and it was in the kitchen).
• Getting taken to the Principal's Office to get three whacks with her paddle for misbehaving in class.
• Playing kickball during recess.
• Getting my mouth washed out with a bar of soap because I used a word I heard my Grampa had said.
• Watching cartoons on Saturday mornings with w mixing bowl full of Cheerios (which I ate like popcorn).
• Going to the Saturday Matinee while Mom got her hair fixed for Sunday (for $1.25  you got a popcorn, a soda, and two movies).
• Find the symbol for "cents" on the typewriter.

Memories are to help us see how far Abba has brought us in our journey.  Yet there are too many who only want to look back at the "Good Old Days."  We cannot live in the past. We cannot live in the future.  We can only live in the present. That's how Abba planned it and we can't change His plans no matter how much we look back.

 

Rearview

Forget about what’s happened;
    don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
    It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?

Isaiah 43:18 

 

I talk with people pretty much every day who seem to be focused on the past.  Now....I'm a huge fan of history and one of my favorite television channels teaching a LOT of history, but here's something we seem to forget...we don't live there anymore!

 

Several people have told me "But you don't know how bad (insert offender's name here) hurt me!"  This is usually said with much anger and volume. Here's my question (and I have to ask this of myself as well): "Okay, that was then, why are you letting them control you NOW?"  You see, we have a habit of trying to carry the past with us into the future.  We fuss about it, get angry every time we replay a situation in our minds, yet we can't or don't want to let it go and stay in the past.

 

Imagine how much less stress we would have if we chose to focus on where we are and where we are going instead of where we've been?

Does Your Past Control Your Present And Your Future?

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Philippians 3:13-14 

 

In Philippians 3, Paul reminds the church at Philippi that he hasn't yet arrived in life. He will still make mistakes. But he doesn't let his past dictate his future either. He strives forward with the goal of Christ at the forefront. And the Apostle Paul's resume has mine beat. He tortured, imprisoned, and murdered Christians before his conversion. Just imagine how much shame and guilt he could have had around that portion of his life. Instead, he doesn't let his past wounds and sins dictate who he is in the present.

 

When we choose freedom from our past, it's because we see ourselves as Christ sees us—holy and blameless due to his life, death, and resurrection that covers our past. We're not fatherless. We're not alcoholics or addicts. We're not even victims. All those words people and society have lobbed at us no longer hold any power over us because Jesus gives us a new heart and a new mind that breathes his unending love into our being. But that's the hard part also, because it's a choice. We can hand over our identity to Christ and let him impart a new one, or we can continue to believe the lies the accuser whispers to us.

 

But like Paul reminds us, we will stumble along the way. The life of faith and our identity in Christ is a marathon, not a sprint. The goal of a marathon for most people is just to complete the race. As long as you keep running, you'll reach the finish line. Don't forget to keep your eyes fixed on the finish line and the way Christ continues to cheer for you. The past is behind you, but the future looks bright.
 

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!

 

Carrying Something You Shouldn't?

Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town.

John 4:28 

What would you do if someone knew your deepest darkest secret about your past?  Would you freak out? Would you feel embarrassed? Would you feel relieved? Fact: we all have a past and not all of it is good.  Yet we tend to carry the burden of fear that someone will discover that we aren't perfect and we aren't as good as we want people to believe.  

 Remember the story where Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well?  Jesus broke through the prejudice whereby Jews and Samaritans did not speak to each other or interact with each other when He asked the woman for a drink of water.  The fact that the woman came to get water in the middle of the day revealed that she was considered an outcast by her own people.  

Jesus revealed her painful past to her and she said He was a prophet.  When Jesus told her that He was the long awaited Messiah, she left her water jar and ran back to the town telling everyone about Jesus.  If you think about it, her water jar represents the burden of her past she'd been carrying for so long.  When Jesus revealed it to her, she didn't have to carry that burden any longer...she had been freed from that burden.

How about you?  Are you carrying the burden of the past or have you been freed from that burden through Christ? 

History Isn't Always About The Past

Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope. 

Romans 15:4

I am a history buff.  Aside from Literature, history was my favorite subject throughout my schooling.  It's fascinating to see how we have learned from the past to improve the present.  Then again, there are many instances where we didn't seem to learn and we ended up repeating the same things as before just in a more modern way.

Think about this: the Bible is FULL of stories about people who had their battered lives restored; of people who were given second chances; of people who made amazing comebacks.  Why would God make sure these events made it into Scripture?  Was it so we could see what Jesus did?  NO!  It's so we can see what Jesus DOES! 

Take a stroll down memory lane and look at your own past.  Everyone has things in their lives that we vainly wish had never happened, but look at all you have endured and you are still standing.  When you accepted Christ, how did your life change?  Did it become perfect? Nope.  Did you make mistakes? Yep.  Did all your pain cease? Nope.  But here's the thing I hope you will garner from your look back: Your past can be shared to give someone else encouragement and hope!

Don't miss this: Your past is a gift of hope and encouragement you can share with someone else.  

Rules for Living....Rule #1

Over the next few days we'll be looking at 4 rules to live by.

Rule #1 - You Can’t Run A Race Looking Backward

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.  ~ Philippians 3:13-14

Three things stick out in this verse:

· “Forgetting the past” - learn from it and let it stay in the past!

· “Looking forward to what lies ahead” - Hope lies forward!

· “Press On” - Keep going! Don’t Give Up!

²⁵ Look straight ahead,
    and fix your eyes on what lies before you.
²⁶ Mark out a straight path for your feet;
    stay on the safe path.
²⁷ Don’t get sidetracked;
    keep your feet from following evil.

~ Proverbs 4:25-27

 

What's Stopping You?

No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead

Philippians 3:13 

 

 

I've been looking at some photos of my family from the time my Dad was a toddler.  Whilst waxing nostalgic for a bit, my mind began to wander to some of the events in my own past that still bothered me more than a little.  Yes, I know, "the past cannot be changed."  I've heard, and said, that more times than I can count....so apparently, I don't listen to myself or others.  Or perhaps I do, and then, during times of stress my mind responds by exhuming what I thought had been buried long ago.

 

The more I pondered (being that I like to think about things), a few reached 4 conclusions:

    1.   The past has happened.

                  It may have been painful.

                  It may have been distressing.

                  It may have been humiliating.

                  It may have been horrible.

                  It may have even been terrifying.

 

   2.  The past is no more.

                  The memories may haunt you.

                  The scars may scare you.

                  The lessons may be painful.

                  But the past is not the present.

 

   3.  The past helped shape you.

                   The bad parts act like sandpaper.

                   The good parts act like polish.

 

   4.  If you could change any aspect of your past, what would it be?  

                   This is a trick question: if you change any piece of your past, you would not be who you are now, nor who you will become.

 

Look at the photo....did the bicycle stop the tree from growing?  

 

"Every saint has a past every sinner has a future."

"And That's The Way It Was..."

Don’t ask, “Why was life better in the ‘good old days’?”
    It is not wise to ask such questions.

Ecclesiastes 7:10 

 

George Bernard Shaw is credited with saying, "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance."  Let's face it, every family has skeletons.  Every person in every family has things in their past that they would like to forget, from bad decisions to idiotic actions to embarrassing moments, we all have a past. We've discussed this issue before, but it bears repeating because, quite frankly, the past just keeps popping up and distracting us.  

 

I've heard the "good old days" stories and, I know this will come as quite the shocker, have told a few myself.  Yes, I grew up where we played outside as often as possible.  Yes, I grew up riding my bicycle to the store where I traded glass pop bottles for candy.  Yes, I grew up when bubble gum was only a penny.  Yes, I grew up when we couldn't wait for the Sears Wish Book to arrive (and it weighed several pounds). Yes, I did some really idiotic things and made some REALLY bad decisions.

 

But here's the thing to remember (from our last chat on this topic): everything in your past has helped to shape who you are NOW!  And everything that is happening to you NOW is going to shape who will BECOME! 

 

1.  Learn from the past.  It's a great teacher if you pay attention.

2. Don't dwell in the past.  You can't plow a straight line looking over your shoulder.

 

Presently Past or Past The Past?

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Philippians 3:13-14

 What is the purpose of the past?  The past is the time from whence we survived until the present.  Can we vacation there? We might try, but with little to no success.  Can we live there?  Believe it or not, there are lots of people who try to live in the past.  You will hear them tell tales of their past accomplishments over and over.  They will point to particular memorabilia which represent only moments in time.  

Then there are those who beat themselves with the past.  Some will lose themselves in their pasts.  Some will be so focused on their past that they cannot seem to move forward with any joy at all.  It's as if they have become extra in the "Walking Dead" just wandering through the present as if lost in a fog.

Look at today's verses.  The word Paul uses for "Forgetting" quite literally means "no longer caring for, neglecting, refusing to focus on."  What a precious gift God has given us of being able to ONLY live in the present!  It is very easy to focus on where we have BEEN (good or bad) because those moments have helped shape us, but we cannot focus our lives there.

Paul is not telling us to wipe the past from our minds as if it never existed.  He is telling us to focus on the present and press on toward the future having LEARNED FROM the past.  Let's face it, there are some parts of our past that we cannot forget and any attempt to remove them from our memory will only make then stand out even more.  We must learn to accept our past (which can not be changed) and live in the present in order to change our future.

Clinging to the past is like standing waist deep in wet concrete. People try to help you move  forward and climb out of the concrete because, if you don't, you will be stuck. Nothing bogs down present performance like carrying the loads of the past.  When we realize that we are not prisoners of our past!  In 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us, "When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!"

Let "Glory Days" be fond memories and a pretty awesome Bruce Springsteen song, but not your prison! 

  

Have We Forgotten?

 My brothers, remember what you were when God chose you. Not many of you were wise by the way people look at it. Not many of you had power. Not many of you came from a family with a big name.

1 Corinthians 1:26 

 

Ever met someone who was so arrogant even though you knew how they were growing up?  I have.  I used to find it fun to wait until one of these gasbags started telling their tales of how great they think they are and then, drop a reminder that I know what they were like when we grew up together.  Usually one of two things would happen, the speaker would turn 10 shades of red and try to "harrumph" their way out of the situation, OR they would blush, laugh, and say "thank you for reminding me."

 

God's Word reminds us not to dwell on past mistakes, but to strive forward.  That's the whole "eyes are on the front of the face for a reason" thing.  But God also wants us to remember that we weren't always the pure and upright superstars we may think we are.  Every veteran began as a newbie!  Every sparkly diamond began as a lump of carbon! EVERYONE had an "awkward phase."

 

Remember where you are going, but also remember what God has brought you out of.