One thing that continually trips me up is an inability to let go of the past. The phrase ‘You/they/I/we should have done this or that’ is one that has too often come out of my mouth. There is a lot revealed about our hearts in these few words. The things revealed in my own life are how I don’t forgive well and have a tendency to think that if something had been done my way there would have been better results. But the reality is: speaking critically of the past doesn’t change the fact that it happened.
I think we have two choice…We can either move on by putting negative experiences in their place and finishing the sentence “I can learn from this by…” Or we can walk backwards into the future, letting our fixation on what ’should have been’ cause us to not see what may lie ahead in the future. One keeps us humble, helps us give grace, and teaches us. The other only entangles us in a web of blame and disappointment. The choice is so clear to me now!
I don’t think Jesus meant for His teachings on forgiveness to only have eternal effects. Being able to let the past be the past and move on is part of being able to live fully in the present as well. And certainly the future. Grace enables us to live like this when we let it because it both does a work in us and in the process does word for us.
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