Faith Words: Blast From the Past

We did it!  We finally emptied out the storage unit we've been renting for about ten years.  It's taken us three separate Saturdays to accomplish it, but now, the unit is empty and swept clean.  We never have to go back there to search through all those boxes.

Unfortunately, we didn't get rid of all the stuff.  Nope.  We just brought it home and put it in our garage. Yes, it's all still with me, right there close by in our garage, right where our cars should be.

When it was at the storage unit, I could forget about it and just keep going happily about my life as if I didn't have a pile of unfinished work to do.  With it just a few steps away where I live, where I will see it all the time, will I keep on ignoring it?  Will I finally deal with it all?  I wish I'd taken the time to sort through it, keeping the good and discarding the junk, years ago.  If only I'd dealt with each item in every box right away instead of hiding it!  If only I'd realized that I was just postponing the inevitable!

Pick a box - any box. What if I clean out that box and find there are things in there I need or someone else can use?  Great!  Wonderful!  Put it to good use and be thankful for it.  What if I face the ugly trash I've boxed up and deal with each item - one by one - and put it where it really belongs?  All that stuff in my garage has been a weight on me for a long time, even when it was hidden away.  I'm so ready to be free of the burden it's all become.

Not everything in our pasts is bad.  Some things we store and ignore are just everyday things, memories now of who we were then, markers showing how far we've come and the road we traveled to get here.  But there are things in our pasts we should have dealt with along the way that we just shoved in the storage units of our hearts and minds, hoping that we'd never have to face them again.

When we open the door on the past, it all comes back, some things warming our hearts with fond memories, some things reminding us of mistakes and missteps. Living with the stuff we like to remember is easy enough. It's the part of us we like, the part we don't mind others seeing.  But what about the stuff I don't want to remember - the stuff that hurts and accuses?

All of the things in our pasts makes us who we are today. But the negative stuff we cling to is a heavy burden, weighing us down.  We need to clean out what we've stored in our hearts - the stuff we've put off dealing with, the boxes we don't want to open again.  How?  There's no easy answer, no one-size-fits-all answer.  But the best place to start is where we are.

We may need help.  Some things can't be dealt with by ourselves.  We may need a good friend to help us decide what to do with it; we may need a counselor.  There's no shame in getting help.  I couldn't clean out our old storage unit by myself.  I won't be able to clean out the garage by myself either.  But the first and one of the hardest steps has been taken.  Now, I have it all where I can go through it and put it in the right place.

Alone or with others, I know I need God's help most of all to manage and sort out the messes of the past.  I need to let Him help me clean my heart and bind my wounds so I can put it all to rest. He can give me the courage to face the ugliness and show me a new beginning, a fresh hope, for the future - a future unburdened by the past. I could continue dragging it around with me, letting it weigh me down, or I could give it to God and let Him reshape it into something useful, maybe even something beautiful.

I don't know right now what I'm going to do with all my stuff, but I know it's time to face it.  It's time to let God help me change my "If only!" to "What if?"

Ready to rejoice,

Patrice

Jeremiah 31:13 (NIV)

Then young women will dance and be glad,
    young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
    I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.