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Friday, February 6, 2009

~sigh~ Another humiliating story about me

Have you ever done something and you really wished you could just go back in time about 20 seconds and have a do-over? I’ve had many of those! But one of my most memorable was when Mark and I were dating. I was crazy about him and after some time apart, we ran into one another and he asked me out again. We both had some things to do yet so we decided to meet up later and went our separate ways.

Those separate ways actually kept us driving on the same road for about 5 minutes until he turned one way and I went the other. I had been watching him drive (because I was just that goo-goo about him!) out my rear view mirror. As he turned the other way, I just had to watch him drive away as long as I possibly could.

I watched too long.

By the time I turned back to look where I was going, I was headed 30 miles an hour straight into the back of a car that was stopped at a red light. As I slammed into that car, the force of the impact sent it crashing into the car in front of it. (This is not the actual photo of my accident, it's just for effect :))



Thankfully, no one was hurt, but they were not happy! It was not a shining moment in my life. Talk about regret! How could I be so stupid? Well, I was. And now other people were paying for my mistakes too.

Do you know why I caused that accident? Ok, besides the obvious. The reason was that I was looking behind me in my rear view mirror instead of looking in front of me to what was ahead.

How many of us spend our lives “looking in the rear view mirror” when we should be looking at what is in front of us?


The pain of the past. Instead of forgiving others (or ourselves) we continue to think about what happened yesterday or years ago and let it define what happens to us today. If we spend life looking in the rear view mirror, we are destined to destroy what lies ahead.

Put the past behind you or it will become a stumbling block.

I don’t know what lies in your past, but I do know that you don’t have to let it dictate your future. Do what you need to do, to put your past behind you. Maybe it’s forgive someone, maybe it’s forgive yourself. Maybe it is to cry out to God to heal the past, and possibly get some counsel on how to do that.


Your future is hopeful and purposeful, but you will never know that if you keep you eyes and thoughts on your past.

Phil 3:13-14
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
NIV

God loves and adores you and has forgiven you. Look at this verse- it does not say “when you stopped sinning and got it all right…” but it says WHEN you were dead in your sins and sinful nature, He forgave you.

Col 2:13
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins
NIV

Time to look forward, your future in God is amazing!

20 comments:

Mel said...

Sue this was so the message I needed to see first thing this morning. I woke up this morning with thoughts of things from my past trying to beat me in the brain and heart.

I reminded myself that God has forgiven those things already and He no longer remembers them so why am I?

Thanks!!!

A Stone Gatherer said...

Sue, this is so timely! It's very recent past, but something happened last night that will hurt our son when and if he finds out! My husband and I are so hurt for him that it has me so "downcast"! I do not want what happen to dictate his future! I want his future to be bright! This message spoke to me! Thanks!

beckyjomama said...

Love the story ... needed the message!

Linda said...

You have know idea how you sharpen me. Thanks I totally needed this at this very moment in my life.
Blessings,
Linda

Terri Tiffany said...

Awesome post! So often I get caught up looking behind me instead of being excited about the future! Needed this today!

Xandra@Heart-of-Service said...

When I read the title to your post, I thought that maybe you had another "worship accident"!

You are so right...sometimes we spend so much time looking back at past mistakes (and glories) that we fail to see what's in front of us!

Xandra

Anonymous said...

Ouch. This is definitly something I struggle with. I'm praying and working on it. I'm waiting on the Lord.

Hi Sue, been awhile, but I've still been reading. :-)

Anonymous said...

Great story and great reminder. Thank you.

Joan said...

Brave woman. It's humbling sometimes to admit our past mistakes. I have several of those moments myself. Thanks for sharing the reminder to look to Jesus for everything. It reminds me of the chorus, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace."

Blessings

Anonymous said...

Sue, there have been so many times when I have chosen to continue to look in the past when the Lord has spoken to my heart that that is the past and now step forward to what He has placed before me.

What a loving and merciful Lord we serve!!
Blessings,
Miriam

Unknown said...

Yes I need to look forward instead of looking back to the times when I could get things done better and faster . See better , My left eye is going bad , may not be able to have it fixed and all the other things that changed as I've gotten older . Thanks for reminding me .
God Bless You .
Mary

Unknown said...

I for got to say that some times we look back to the good times and beat our self's up for not doing what we think we should be able to do .
We need to except that we're getting older and things don't always go so good .
Thanks , Mary

Julie said...

Sue, I am a firm believer that when God allows a memory of the past to surface in our lives He wants to take us to removing it's affects on our lives. He wants to touch it, and heal it. We should move on after we hear His truth, His love, His life spoken there.....

Our past does not define us... it just sometimes cripples us.... unfortunately, until we allow God's breath of life to free us with His truth!

I enjoyed this post and agree!

LauraLee Shaw said...

What an incredible analogy. Wow. I have had the SAME thing happen to me...just a few years ago. Gerph. I so long to fix my eyes on Jesus to avoid the wrecks in life. Thank you for the reminder.

Debbie Petras said...

If I spend too much time thinking about the mistakes of my past, I get discouraged. Instead I hope to learn from my past so I don't repeat the same behavior in the future. I'm so thankful for God's grace and forgiveness.

Amy Wyatt said...

Sue,
It's so funny, I just read your post and realized I posted about the same concept for TSMS this week. Totally different story, but same concept. Apparently one of our mutual bloggy friends needs to hear to forget the past or at least realize the past (good or bad) is what shapes who we are today. Blessings to you this weekend.

Ginger Tate said...

Very good post & great way to start the day. Yes, we all wish we could have "do-overs". But I'm so thankful that we serve a mighty God who forgives our past failures.

Thanks for the reminder tho!

Missy said...

Once when I was single I was on the freeway in bumper to bumper traffic. On this curve that curves around downtown Houston - not a good place to be. I looked over at the car next to me and the guy was cute. So I kept looking and bumped into the car in front of me.

Fortunately no cars were hurt, so all I got was a dirty look from the other driver. But oh, I just kept thinking how embarrassing it would have been to tell people how the accident happened.

I did take a spiritual application too - I knew God was telling me to keep my eyes off the boys and keep them on the road!! Literally and figuratively!!

Unknown said...

For me, my pain is my family and I just had to let them go. That's the way I'm able to move on. Have I actually forgiven them? I've said the words.

Anonymous said...

Sue, love this and need to share it may I???? Live for today:)

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