ARE YOU PARKED IN YOUR PAST?

Philippians 3:13  No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it but I focus on this one thing:  Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.  

Past - gone by in time;  no longer existing.  It is finished,  It is done.  It is in the past.  If it's in the past, then why are you still living there?  I know that one hurt.  It did for me too.  Many years ago I realized I had lived in my past for way too long.  The fact that my parents moved to Arizona crushed me.  It affected me or I should say that it infected me.  To be honest they did nothing wrong.  My dad's health was top priority and moving to Arizona was the best decision they could have made, but for me it was devastating.  The fact that it happened 31 years ago didn't dull the pain.  I never allowed this pain to affect my relationship with them, I don't think they know how their moved affected me.  I never became verbally angry with them, never lost my temper with them.  They were my parents and I loved them.  I may have wanted to but I didn't.  I spent years crying.  I spent years reliving this past pain.  I told almost everyone I met about the sad story of my past.  I parked in the pain of the past for almost 25 years.

I know that sounds sad but it was my reality.  Instead of focusing on the good times I had with my parents, the back of my mind was filled with the past of what they had done to me. Holidays and birthdays were filled with tears.  The pain for me became a badge of courage.  I would wear that badge to get attention and give me a reason for my pity parties.   Sympathy I received was adding to my reasons for keep parking there, you know, in my past.  Why do we allow our past to define us?  Why do we park in our past hurts?  Why do we keep a list of wrongs done to us?  Why do we wear our past as an excuse to live a pitiful, depressed life?

 Honestly the thoughts I had back then, sickens me now.  The way I parked in the past makes me physically sick to my stomach.  Listen everyone has a past, some more painful than others, but when we park in the past, when we relive every painful word, every painful hit and every painful wrong, why are we surprised that our life is pitiful?  Listen I had to answer this question honestly myself.  I had to get real and allow God to heal my past and teach me to let it go.  It wasn't easy because I had to deal with myself.  It wasn't my parents fault that I lived a pitiful life for 25 years.  Okay listen let me clarify, my life wasn't pitiful, my attitude was pitiful, okay maybe it was pathetic.  Anyway I think you get my drift here, at least I hope so.  

I will be as brutally honest here as I can be and I hope I offend you enough to make you stop and think.  Get over it!!  No matter what lies in your past, no matter how much someone hurt you, no matter what someone did to you, guess what?  It's over!!!  It's in your past!!!  I'm not asking you to forget what happened, but it's time to pull up your big girl (or big boy) panties and stop parking in the past.  Deal with it, talk with someone, seek counseling, whatever you need to do, but then move on!   We all experience pain to one degree or another.  Some pain is worse than other but pain is a fact of life.  We were never promised a life without pain.  You don't have to allow your life to be ruined because someone hurt you.  

When you park in your pain, you're settling for a life that is less than what God has waiting for you.  We can't always avoid pain, but we can choose to not let it ruin us.  Listen no one is perfect.  People sin, people commit crimes, people screw up and make mistakes, but we don't have to live in the past.    Your past cannot define you unless you allow it to.  Your pain cannot change who you are unless you allow it to.  Harsh?  Maybe but it's time to grow up.  It's time to let go.  Put your life in gear and begin traveling down that road less traveled.  You may be amazed at what God has waiting for you around the corner.

We cannot change our past.  We cannot erase the words spoken to us.  We may not be able to eliminate the physical pain we live with.  BUT we can learn to move on.  Stop parking in our pain and let it go.  Don't let pain ruin life.