Neither Forget Who You've Been, No Who You Are Becoming

A. There are different ways of looking at the past.

I’ve noticed on FaceBook a number of nostalgia posts that go around asking “Do you know what this is?” or “Do you remember this?” There will be an accompanying photo of a Magic cube Flash Bulb or a wringer washing machine or Morris the Cat or Home Economics Ironing Class or a bottle of Mr. Clean or an antique glass door knob. Things like that…

We like to remember that kind of stuff. We like to get all nostalgic and sentimental about the past. But we may not like dredging up things from our spiritual past. We may not like uncovering stuff that was hurtful and harmful and at the time life-defining. Shameful and embarrassing things are not pleasant memories.

God says that when we give our lives to Christ God does something with all that stuff. The old life and all the baggage from the old life is gone and a new life has begun!

It is sometimes good to remember who we were and what we’ve been in light of where we now are and who we’ve become and will yet be.

B. Just as we look at the old life for what is was we look at our new life for what it is and the potential if holds.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.

We are new Creations in Christ. We have a past, i.e., old things or where we’ve been. But that was then and now is now. We are hopefully living a new reality. We can look back and see not only where we were but how far we’ve come. And we can also look forward to what God has in mind for us living for and loving God and living for and loving others back to God.

Conclusion:

We are as a culture obsessed with appearances. We are always wanting to restore things or make things over. Whenever we set about any kind of make-over or rebuilding we have something new in mind… the promise of or a vision of how something could be looms large in our imaginations.

Some of the hottest television reality shows are about transforming old spaces into new spaces.

A property owner found a prospective buyer for a property he was having difficulty selling. When he showed the place to the prospective buyer he took pains to tell the buyer what he could do to quickly bring it up to snuff… a few new windows, repair a little structural damage, paint would go a long way.

But the buyer would have none of it. He said, “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want this old building; I want the site.”

We have our ideas about what a little fixing up for appearances sake might look like in our lives and even what it should look like in the lives of other people. But I suspect the stuff we are looking at can hardly be compared to the renovation and rebuilding God has in mind.

One of the most heartwarming stories of late is the story of Grace and Megan Phelps-Roper. Grace and Megan grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas which is pastored by their grandfather, Fred Phelps. The Westboro Baptist Church is famous for or infamous for their picketing hate mongering in the name of God. Megan, who has been the public face and voice for the church recently left the church. She said, “I wanted to be good and I thought I was good…” and then she realized that instead of being good and loving and helpful toward others, she and her church were instead being instruments of all that is evil and deplorable.