This is an article I wrote in 2009 for IMPULSE, a newsletter for those who are involved with research on Myasthenia Gravis. I thought it would be a good word of encouragement for the first day of this new year of 2012.
We’ve all said it, or at least thought it, that old phrase, “If I could go back in time and….? “. I have longed for those golden days of yore that were my youth. But would I really go back if I had the chance?
Man’s curiosity for reliving the past via time travel seems to show up quite a bit. Movies like The Butterfly Effect, Back To The Future, and The Time Machine. One thing seems to stick out in every story of time travel. Something always goes bad. It takes numerous trips through time to fix the bad situations and nothing is truly back to normal. That should tell us something. Man was not meant to relive his past but, we do it all the time.
When we don’t let go of hurts and the wrongs done to us, when we choose not to forgive, we relive the wrong done to us over and over. Every time we speak of it and the memories of it enter our minds, our emotions react as if the situation has just happened. That is why we cry over it again. That is why we get angry all over again. As far as our emotions are concerned it just happened. We need to talk to get it out, but in a good way.
When we have certain traumatic things happen to us, it’s hard to just get over it. When things happen that hurt us and damage our emotions, those things seem to never end. I can speak from experience. When I got my first real girlfriend, I mean one that I had for more than a month or two, I thought I had found the one for me. Within two weeks of seeing each other I was professing my love for her. She told me she loved me too, but when I think about it she didn’t. She was just saying it because I did. She inevitably ended up breaking my heart tremendously. It was the most devastating thing I thought I would ever go through and at the time I thought it would never end. I was an emotional wreck. I even lost a job due to my out of control emotions. I did, however, find that time truly heals all wounds if you allow it to.
I wanted to be healed and free from the pain so bad that I did the only thing I knew to do. Take it to God. Through forgiveness and persistent prayer my heart was healed. The broken relationship was mended. We both married other people, but we are on good ground with each other.
The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:13 and 14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (KJV). In a nutshell, Paul was saying what’s done is done and what’s past is just that, the past. I have more important things to do. If we took this kind of attitude about our past, what could we accomplish?
It’s not wrong to reminisce about old times or drive down memory lane. Just don’t set up residence and live there. Would I really go back if I had the chance? Even for the good times? Not when I think about my wife who stands beside me and my two wonderful baby girls who fill my here and now. Not a chance. Sorry, Yesteryear, I’ll visit every once in awhile.
Let me encourage you. Don’t live in the past. Allow God to heal whatever hurts you may have. Forgive those who did the hurting. As difficult as it may be, it is possible. Christ died for them, too. Cherish your memories, enjoy your present, and live for the future.
In Christ,
Kevin
