It’s easy to live in the past.
It’s the high school quarterback who wears his letterman’s jacket to the 30th reunion to remember the glory years. It’s the 30-something who can’t get over their college sweetheart six years after the big break-up. I kinda laugh inside when I hear people talk about the good ol’ days like they never left. We all remember the past because it’s powerful, but it’s still the past.
Think about the rear view mirror in your car. There’s a reason it’s so much smaller than the windshield: what’s in the past is not nearly as important as what’s still to come. When we put so much emphasis on the past that it distracts us from the future, it’s like constantly looking in your rear view mirror instead of looking through the windshield.
Your past may have some incredible highlights. Huge success can be intoxicating to revisit in our minds. What keeps us from growing and stepping deeper into what God’s called us to do is when we focus on how great things may been in the past. We can trick ourselves into subconsciously thinking, “That’s about as good as life will get.”
We serve a great God who wants to continue working in lives even beyond what we could ever hope or imagine (Eph. 3.19-21), even greater than what we might already consider our greatest moments in life.
Thinking about the past isn’t wrong, but constantly dwelling on the past is. When we unglue our focus from what’s been, whether it’s good or bad, we can focus on what God’s bringing our way down the road of life. A lot of times we let sin, Satan, or selfishness keep us focused on what’s in our past.
God wants you to turn your eyes towards where He’s taking you now, off the rear view mirror of your past and to the windshield of your future. I truly believe the best of life is yet to come if we allow God to continue transforming our hearts through the Gospel. Who you’ve been in the past, as good or as jacked-up as you may have been, is the perfect starting place for God to do something in the future that will blow your mind if you let Him have full control of your life’s direction.
God wants to do incredible wonders through your future, but you might miss it if you’re focused on your past. Quit staring in the rear view mirror of your life. Ask for wisdom to see the road ahead where God’s taking you. May the windshield of your future be bigger than the rear view mirror of your past.
Keep your eyes ahead, pray for clarity to see, and watch what God will do next.