Tuesday, April 26, 2016

ghosts of the past



Back in time…

Have you ever sat and thought about if you could go back in time and change some decisions you made which ones you would?  I bet you have, because we all pretty much have.  Now, don’t misunderstand me I LOVE my life.  Love my wife, kids, career, and everything about where I am and what I’m doing.  As I look back at the last, at my past, there are so many things that haunt me.  Different decisions I would have made, different ways I would have handled things, changed things I said, things I did, and etc.

I LOVE the Back to the Future movies; they are the ones I could watch over and over.  I’m not talking about going back and changing things majorly like Marty did.  I get and understand that most of what has happened in my life has shaped and led me to the point where I am now. 

The ghosts from my past they haunt me, they torment me.  I hold on the fact of what scripture tells me in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

 

I am in Christ, I am a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come…..

 

And yet, the ghosts are still there..  I wished I could make them go away.

 

Maybe they are there to remind me of how great grace is, maybe they are there to remind me of how far God has brought me, maybe they are there because there is a lesson yet to be learned, and maybe, just maybe it’s just me.  Maybe I’m the one who won’t let them go; maybe I am the one who hasn’t forgiven me yet.  I find myself constantly looking over my shoulder looking out for these ghosts.  They torment me in life and in my dreams.  Every time I think they are gone they are back again.  But then again they are ghosts…. Or are they?

 

Yes, I definitely would have made some better decisions, hence less ghosts. 

 

I am who I am; I am what I am because of everything that has happened up to this point in life.  I keep trying to tell myself that, in hopes it would help.  Sometimes I think it does, and sometimes not so much.  Maybe it is just my enemy playing mind games with me.

 

Isaiah says: 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.  (43:18-19, NIV)

 

I know what I am supposed to do, it seems so simple “forget the former and don’t dwell on the past”, but my past won’t leave me alone…. Or maybe I won’t leave my past alone.  I’ve hurt people by foolish decisions, am I alone in this….  I wish I could make amends for my past.

 

As I am writing this my Creator has reminded me that in my heart I want to make the amends and that I indeed CAN let them go.  That He has forgiven me.  That the ghosts may still come, but they are just ghosts, nothing more and nothing less.  He has come to make my joy complete.  I want complete Joy.  I must forgive myself.  I can’t right all the wrongs I’ve done. 

 

May you forgive me if I have wronged you; I know I don’t deserve it.

 

God wants you to know that if you struggle with your past; the ghosts, the memories, and the hurt, that He has come to set you free from it.  He has come that you may have life (John 10:10) and have it abundantly.  You don’t need to go back and change your past, God can and will give you a new future.  He wants to help you, will you let Him?

 

Chris


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