Looking back

“…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:13-14

Sometimes we are driving forward while looking in the rearview mirror. We are making some progress but who are we running over in the process; who is our obsession with the past hurting? We are hurting those who love us dearly. We are hurting ourselves…

For the failings, the mistakes, and the pain of the past is only alive when we give it life.

We hold on because: Maybe they are more comfortable there than in the present, maybe the scar never fully healed, or maybe we’ve never forgiven others or ourselves…

The rearview mirror is not a reflection of reality… but a distortion viewed by a child of Christ whose past is washed in the blood of the Lamb, whose history is clear, and who is forgiven…

And though hard to see… our past is not a curse but a blessing. For the experiences of then have helped create the strength of today. Strength shown by compassion, by mercy, by giving, by carefulness, and by longsuffering. Strength to look back and forgive in the given grace of Christ our Lord.