Let it go

I am not a trained counselor nor do I claim to be.  However, because I am a pastor I have had plenty of opportunity to function in the role of a counselor.

It has been my observation that people with certain problems (we all have problems and issues), never move forward because they cling to the past.  Now, I don’t have a problem delving into the past for understanding.  It’s when we are stuck to the past and are unwilling to create change to move forward and into the future.

Understanding the past is perfectly admissible if your issue is accepting the past.  But if your issue is changing the future, understanding the past alone will not take you there.  Some people when you say, “If you want to change, do this,” are simply unwilling.

They often choose the path of least resistance and thus stay stuck where they are.  Like a perfectionist who says, “My parents never said I was good enough.”  This is why I am the way I am.  Or the person who believes he can operate above the rules and feels he can do no wrong, because his parents doted on him and inflated his importance.

Or you freeze around authority figures because you had a controlling mother, and so on.

We can’t do anything about the past.  We can’t change it, rewrite it or make excuses for it.  All we really can do is accept it and move on.  When we cling to the past it is also easy to blame someone else for anything that’s gone wrong in our lives.  This stems from the result of the fall of Adam and Eve (read Genesis 3:12-19)

When we make excuses, or blame someone else, or something else beyond our control as the reason for the issues we have, we will not move forward in a healthy positive way.

If you no longer want to cling to the past, why not try this: 1) Stop blaming others for the way you are. 2) Own the necessary changes you need to make to move forward. 3) Accept the outcome of the choices you have made in the past to equip you for better changes in the future.  Remember what Paul said, “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child, when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”  Don’t cling to the past, move forward.





P.S. How can your lifestyle: behaviors, actions, reactions, decisions, speech, etc. reflect Jesus in the world we live in?  We will look at this question in our Worship Services this Sunday at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m.  Hope to see you there!