the grip of the past

Isn't it funny how God teaches us?

A few days ago I was having a catch up conversation with an old friend I hadn't talked to in a while. We've known each other several years through a lot of good and a lot of bad. Basically, we know each others crap. Anyway... we were discussing an upcoming event [that will remain nameless] and he asked if I was going. I replied listlessly that no, I'm not, because it reminds me of a not-so-glorious time in my life when I made some terribly stupid decisions, and I don't like to revisit it.

His response: "Dude. That was like, 10 years ago. Literally."

I did some quick math in my head on my fingers and agreed that yes, it has been almost ten years ago, and I couldn't believe it. Am I seriously letting something that happened 10 years ago dictate what I'm going to do today?

Thats when I realized the grip that my past has had on me. I try to stuff it and run from it and hide it and a million other things besides look it in the face and own up to it. These are the facts: there was a time when I didn't know Christ, when I was living for myself with little to no regard for anyone else. During this time, I did things and hurt people and made choices that I am not proud of, and some of which I am actually ashamed of. We all have this part of our story, don't we? Whether we are on the other side and can look back at it or we are in it right now and drowning.

Now I'm in Christ, and I am covered by grace. I know that Jesus died for my sins, that He paid my ransom, that God sees me through the lens of Christ's perfection. I know I am redeemed from my past. The problem lies in stopping there, which is easy to do. I am redeemed from who I was, and sometimes I settle into thinking that that's it, and now I'm on neutral ground again because Christ took all the bad away. But thats just not the whole truth.

I am redeemed from my past, but I'm also redeemed to my future. The old self has passed away, true, but not only that... the new self has come! Christ didn't just take all my bad away, He also put all His good on me! So I didn't go from negative a million to neutral... I'm now at a million in the positive, because I'm not just redeemed from, I'm redeemed TO.

What is thats got a grip on you from your past? Maybe it's choices you've made, or maybe it's choices someone else made that negatively effected you. The past haunts people, constantly, and relentlessly. But if you are in Christ, it has no power over you. The old is gone AND the new has come. Let it go. Let it go friends. Let it go sweet brothers and sisters. That was the old you, and this is the new.

You are not just redeemed from your sin, and you are redeemed TO a new life in Christ.