"Keep the past in the past"

Some people never move forward in life because they are living in the past. They focus on who hurt them and how life is unfair. I was one of them. The one thing that I have learned is that when you go digging up the past, all you will get are a few calluses and blisters on your hands and your clothes get messy and dirty. Keep the past in the past. It is like Déjà Vu when you live in the past. You relive your unpleasant scenes over and over again. There are just a few reasons why digging up the past can be beneficial to you. Perhaps one would be to not make the same mistakes twice and to learn from them.

I have seen many people enslaved because of un-forgiveness. They tell the same sob story over and over again how someone did them wrong to the point that you know the story word for word, verbatim. They are trapped in the past, ancient history sort of speak! I knew a co-worker whose husband walked out on her and their children years ago and because she was unable to bury the past, it was her topic of conversation. I have known people who all they want to talk about is what someone did to them! They go looking for someone to co-sign their troubles with them. Or they want to drag you into their misery. Like they say, “misery loves company.” Get over it and turn the page. You can’t turn back time. So what if someone did you wrong, get over it. Your best friend the town crier who you confided in put all you personal business out on Front Street for every one to know, get over it. Stop winning over something that happened to you five, ten, fifteen and twenty years ago. Move on my brother and my sister. Leave the past in the past. Many people today are trapped by their past. Many are wallowing in their failed marriage, relationship and the business deal gone bad! They have one foot in the present and the other foot is in the past. This ought not to be. And you cannot always cast from your mind the pain of the past but you can decide to move forward in the present and reconstruct a new future.

“Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a vision, today is an opportunity”

Digging up the past only serves to relive the pain of the past over and over again. That is why Paul wrote, “Forgetting those things that are behind”, Phil 3:13. You cannot go back in the past and change history. A time machine has not been invented. We don’t live in an age of time travel where a portal allows man to go back in time and change the course of events. For all intents and purposes, you can’t undo what’s already has been done. And there is no medical procedure to extract or swipe your mind of painful memories. People are stuck in a moment of time. Today, I urge you to search for a way to get unstuck. As much as you want to live in the past, it is not the place where God wants you to be. He does not desire that you live in the past. Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a vision, today is an opportunity!

It is time you let go of your past and all the hurt and pain that is buried there. It is like playing instant replay in your mind. You replay over and over again in your mind that event. Until you learn to forgive, your mind plays reruns of some of your painful experiences over and over. It begs the question, “Why would you want to sit before a television set and watch reruns?” You have the power to stop the madness. It is time to get over it and move forward in your life. Pack away the hurtful memories into a trunk, lock it, throw away the key and bury it in the attic of your mind. As long as you live in the past you will always be a victim of it and be defined by what someone did to you. Are you a mother with children whose husband abandoned you? Are you someone who was passed over for a promotion even though you were the best qualified applicant? Did your spouse cheat on you? Don’t be defined by what someone did to you. Let go of the past.

It is time that you rise up and stop living in the past. It is time that you stop being a defeated foe. Now is the time to turn over a new leaf! God can take you past your pain and past your past. Trust God to move you past your hurt, pain, and betrayal. Is there anything in your heart or mind so painful that you cannot forgive? You can be more than a conquer when you step out from the shackles of your past and start living in the here and now.

Life must be lived forward and not backwards. Seize the moment by being in the moment. When you keep the past in the past, you can progress along the journey that will not only help you tear down the wall of un-forgiveness but will enable you to blow that sucker up. If you keep looking back in your past you are going to miss out on your whole life. Sadly, many today are walking the path of un-forgiveness because hurtful memories die hard.

© Copyrighted Material 2011 Marquis Evans