“The past is a foreign place, they do things differently there.”

                                      ~ Unknown

           

All of humanity shares a common thread of silver that is entwined throughout their lives. Depending on the viewer’s perspective, this thread either binds them up, and prevents progress, or anchors them down to more secure, safer, and simpler times. There are those who cling to this thread as if it were their very lifeline, while others spend their lifetime attempting to cut it with the knife of resentment. Some look upon this thread, their eyes filled with a thousand regrets, the sorrows of a yesterday reflecting in today through the glimmer in their eyes. Yet there are those who look upon it with a wistful sigh, longing for the whimsical happenings of a yesterday in a different lifetime, a yesterday they will never grasp again. This thread of silver has been known to be haunting. Its intricate weave can remind you of events better left forgotten. It holds the power to pressure the future to live up to it. It can influence the lens in which you view the world to make your decisions. It is the past. There are two major people groups in dealing with the past. There are those who have been scarred. They reject their past completely, and spend their lifetime hiding from it, petrified that their scars will be cut open and that the past will breathe again. Others run to it. They embrace it every day and go over every detail religiously, terrified that if they miss even a moment the past will remain dead forever and that they will be left with nothing but an empty present, and a foreboding tomorrow. Both of these perspectives are flawed. If you allow your past to dictate ANYTHING that you do, it has ceased to become your past and has become your present, and tomorrow it will be your future. The past should not pressure you, determine, you, or define you. It should simply be exactly what it is, “the past.” I struggle with the past, at times I wish for it to live again, to breathe again, to simply be again. The other day, I read something that was oh so true in my life, and it helped me approach my view of the past correctly. “It is OK to miss something without wanting it back.” I realized that I needed to balance my love for the past, with the joy I found in the present, a quote that personally speaks to me is, “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.” This idea is also found in scripture. Philippians 3:13 states, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own, but one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining forward to what is ahead.” Our past mistakes do not define us, learn from them and move on. The happy times of the past should be treasured, but not lived in place of the present. File them away as cherished memories in the filing cabinet of your mind, and remember the ever encouraging C.S. Lewis quote, “There are far better things ahead than what we leave behind. “Keep tomorrow in mind but not at expense of the moment. Embrace the next new thing that is coming into life. Join me today in forgetting the old and pressing on towards what is ahead and waiting!