PRESENT PAST

What is it about the" past" that never remains in the past? When dealing with life-altering events, there seems to be a pull to revisit the things that have been left unfinished or rather just undone. I believe that although the words unfinished and undone carry the same connotations, there’s a slight difference. Unfinished is like leaving a situation mid-sentence, with no punctuation. Undone is more like a tornado, leaving things in devastation, in a mess.  The past has a way to grasp you and stop time. The human life experiences and events can alter the course of life and our emotions.  Every perception of what our lives are can change in an instant. With that said, the question arises: when does the past become the past? What makes it the past, time? Most would say that time is a healer. But time can also make wounds deeper, more callous more fragile. The longer an event stays in the past without being handled, we build upon unfinished moments.

What I’ve learned about the events of life is that time is just a guise. Time has a way of deceiving you. Especially when one instant can trigger and bring back emotions associated with a past event immediately into your present. Needless to say, many people are crippled by the past. Experts offer positive thinking as one solution for individuals wanting to overcome the past. However, positive thinking can be possible or rather a success only once the foundation (thought pattern) has been relayed.  That is to say, if your mindset isn’t altered, you won’t know how to begin to think positive.

One thing that the unsettling events of the past can do is create mindsets/perception/ an established way of thinking that has the power to shift a person’s entire world. Everything from the way an individual responds to situations can be the result of the past, a moment, an episode. It’s sort of like saying the individual becomes a different person from each moment and event. Ultimately, thoughts are produced based on the experiences of the past, which is ultimately a part of an individual’s make-up. Most people will agree that our experiences make us who we are. But is it who we were meant to be?

Looking at what makes us us gives a better understanding to why Christ says that we must be born again. In other words, we must come through a canal that is designed to create in us a new heart and mind. In this world, there so many distractions and images constantly flashing through television, magazines, bill boards that come, seemingly, at the speed of light. This world’s pace is as a world wind. It is so easy to miss the important element that seems to be hidden behind a vale but actually is right in front of us, God.

Getting back to the natural-ness of who we are without the stigmas of the past is a process, but it a process that is worth the work. We can’t move forward when we walk backwards. That is what the past does, causes us to look back and change our course from forward to reverse. Take the time to look at the things of your past that has held you prisoner. And know that those things have no right to hold you without your permission. Overcoming the past isn’t a fairytale, it is a reality, a reality that God desires each of us to have. As He said, in Him we are new. No extra formalities, just new. So purpose within yourself that the only thing you will take into your future is you. 

AGAPE