Even Though I Have a Past

With the political season we are currently in, we are constantly bombarded with publicity penned by both sides of the aisle targeting the sins and shortcomings of their opponent. I am writing this before the election, so it remains a mystery today how much the negative ads impacted the vote. Frequently, headlines and social media leak out sordid details about those in the limelight who now are in the spotlight attempting to explain or evade a troubled past. Everything from sexual promiscuity, drunk driving, or fraudulent money practices like trying to get your kid in a name brand college without the necessary credentials. When the internet introduced the selfie, many of us breathed a sigh of relief that our reckless youthful days were not captured on camera and “shared” for all the world to see, including parents, potential in laws and employers to name a few. A few of my friends began to forecast that after a certain year of birth, you might be totally disqualified from any public service or political job because all your closet skeletons had been shared and followed hundreds of times. I had a friend who broke into a garage with a few friends in his teenage years on a dare and another person present committed a crime of vandalism. It kept my pal from being selected by the state police academy after he had shared they burglarized the garage to try marijuana. He went to work for the road commission. His past cancelled a future he desperately had hoped for. My friend wasn’t the first, and he won’t be the last. Our past can come into play when we least expect it. 

If truth be known, all of us have things that we would rather not remember. It is painful to be reminded of our failings, bad choices, and even our mistakes. Even if they don’t steal our success, they certainly can undermine our confidence or rob our joy. Our past can cast yesterday’s long shadow on today’s sunlight. If you have ever tried to move forward after a life disaster of your making or someone else’s, you know the difficulty of experiencing forgiveness from others and overcoming shame and guilt. Most everyone would take a do over at some crossroad in their life, somewhere, sometime.

Consider the Samaritan woman at the well.(John 4: 4-42) When she encountered the Messiah that day, she was carrying a ton of baggage from her past. So much so, that her present was part of the continuum of a series of terrible and sinful choices. When Jesus confronted her about going to get her husband, (She had 5 and was currently shacking up with a 6th)He already knew her past. He did not bring it into the conversation to isolate and condemn her but to confront and liberate her. His goal was not to rub her nose in her past but to give her a scent of a clean future. She could have it if she turned to Him for forgiveness and relationship. When she left her water jar and ran to town to tell others, she already showed the signs of one being delivered, and given the power to over come failure. Despite her past, she had a fear free future.

Let us take a look at the Apostle Paul (Acts 9). He was basically the mob boss known as Saul then, organizing hits on followers of Christ. He helped arrest these folks and feed them to the lions in the coliseum. He probably watched, if truth be known. When God confronted Saul on the Damascus Road, Saul was on his way to plot attacks on new testament churches. He had a scathing past, and none of us would have selected him as most likely to become a pastor”in his Jewish college yearbook. Yet, after Saul turned to Christ and a relationship with Him, Saul repented of his past sins and became the greatest Apostle of the ages. Even though he had blood on his hands, God changed his heart. My father used to say, God put Saul in the witness protection plan. God gave Saul a new identity, changed his name to Paul and called him to witness for him, while God protected Paul from his past. Paul wrote most of the New Testament and often refers to himself as a chief sinner(1 Timothy 1:15) 

Even though it has been about 2,000 years, both of these folks survived their past and went on to lead productive purposeful lives for God. This type of account can be found again and again in the scriptures. Situations that from a worldview, seemed not recoverable. Think of folks that have been in the headlines the last few years. It is hard to imagine that God could redeem folks and place then in a life of use for His glory. It reminds me grace is a free gift. It is not earned or deserved. It is the unmerited favor of God, borne out of His love for us and purchased by the sacrifice of Christ, Secured by His resurrection. So if death is now something we can recover from, what could there be in life that God could not set right if the intent of the heart is ripe for repentance? There is no place where a person can dig one self into that God cannot rescue us out of. Even facebook! It doesn’t mean it won’t be painful; it doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences, but God walks with us in our failure. He is not outside it, waiting to judge us. He is calling us desperately out of a painful past to Himself to restore, to recover and to rejuvenate our lost lives.

Life in the this world today is tough.It seems the camera is always on, and nothing is off the record. For a follower of a Christ the best we can do is allow God to fill us with His integrity to choose well. If we are following Him, we don’t have to worry with fear that we will be found out. But even though we fall, even though we may have a past, God has cast it into the sea of forgetfulness and can give us a perspective that sees beyond what we have done. Rather, He provides a vision of what He alone can do with a future yielded to Him.