Rewriting the Past on Purpose
As believers, we have God's promise in Proverbs 4:18, that "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day." (ESV)
The normal Christian life is one that grows better and better. As we allow God to have His way in us, our perspective gets brighter, our faith grows, the old sins that used to trip us up fall off, and the things which seemed so difficult to forgive when we were young pale in comparison to the knowledge of our own depravity and how much we've been forgiven.
Lately, I've been looking back at some once painful memories, but with new eyes and a wiser perspective. It's not been a deliberate choice----it's been more of a God journey, because He wants me to see things back there that I didn't see at the time.
And I am realizing that in some cases, the stuff I was carrying at the time, kept me from having His perspective on those moments. So, here's a recent example. One of the things which has kept me from aspects of my destiny is my tendency to "dabble." I enjoy serving, but I get bored easily. So, I jump around a lot. I'm lucky enough to have a number of friends who speak into my life, and one of them took me aside at one point and pointed out, how this tendency was hurting me. But at the time? Rather than hearing the heart of my friend to help? All I could hear was judgment. I judged their advice to be short-sighted, and trying to force my personality into a mold that only some fit.
Yesterday a different friend said the same thing to me but in a slightly different way. It wasn't about restricting freedom, it wasn't about not allowing me to be me. It was that longevity in a post gives one a platform. The lightbulb clicked on, and in my spirit I was like, "Ohhhhhhhhhh." Had I listened the first time, perhaps I'd be further down the road than I am now.
This kind of thing is happening a lot these days, and I find God to be not only the author of my story, but also the Editor. He is doing what I could never do on my own----rewriting history, changing my memories, producing a new script for events which have already occurred.
I'm not suggesting we should live in the past, or analyze every situation that ever caused us pain.
The real lesson I feel He is teaching me thru this is to be more open to the possibility of being wrong in the moment. To hold my opinions gently, and to trust those He has put in my life. To recognize His voice when He speaks thru others and to heed it the first time around, so precious life isn't poured out upon an altar of stubbornness and pride and self-preservation.
I'm learning to let my Father rewrite my past on purpose, and to trust Him to author my story in part by using ghostwriters He employs.
Photo credit: Fabien Barral on Unsplash.
