I recently stumbled onto a great line from a TV show I’ve never watched. Ted Mosby said, on How I Met Your Mother, “You can’t cling to the past, because no matter how tightly you hold on, it’s already gone.”
Jesus said it like this: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
This letting go of the past thing isn’t always easy for me. I was recently going through our storage unit. Contemplating what to do with things that we have had in the family for decades, but which I never see, use, or have space for, is painful for me. That’s why I still have my old stuffed lion from 1965 and my mom’s “fine china” from the Eisenhower years. I’m not sure anyone has ever actually eaten off those plates.
We all have a past. For some of us, our past has us. And that’s when we have a problem.
I like the words of Oscar Wilde: “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”
Here’s my take – it’s okay for us to visit the past, but not to live there.
Recovery Step: God has called you to march boldly into the future. Perhaps you’ll need to let go of a few things from your past in the process. Are you willing to do that?
