The Past is a Tyrant

There we are, moving and shaking, excited about new goals, hoping, dreaming, expecting great things… then BOING! Something from our past jumps up and says, “Here I am! Remember me? We had all the good times, you feel comfortable with me, everything is familiar. Why change things? It’s risky out there in the future with all your big ideas.”

Have you ever had those thoughts? The past likes to bring up things that will derail our resolutions for the future. Doubts, fears, old desires, fantasies, and bondages just waiting to pull us back. In From Woodstock To Eternity, Dustin Morgan finds himself face to face with the past in the form of a Michelob sign,

The two cabin builders settle into a small cafe on the main strip and order their coffee and cinnamon rolls. As he sits in the wooden booth, sipping his coffee, Dustin looks out across the street. There, beckoning him from a small saloon, is a glowing, red neon Michelob sign. It’s a blast from the past, intruding into his new life from the other side of the road. It’s saying,

“Dustin, I’m here. Come on in. Remember all the good times we had? You used to have a ritual, remember? Every time you went up the mountain, you would stop in a bar in the foothills and have a couple of beers to celebrate. Well, you’re getting ready to go up the mountain, and here I am. Come on, Dustin, just have one beer. One beer won’t matter.”

This is the tyranny of the past

The past tries to manipulate us by softening the effects of what has gone on before. Time is a healer of wounds, and the past tries to capitalize on this by telling us the bad things weren’t that bad, and the feel good things that got us into trouble were really OK. If our new focus is not clear, we may be easily influenced to go backwards.

How to overcome the tyranny of the past

1. Make a sharp contrast between where you came from and where you want to be.

The contrast is stark, and the choice is clear. The church side of him is here, in a coffee shop, with his church friend, representing his deliverance. And the saloon side of him is over there, with the tinkling glasses, the smell of liquor, the crack of billiard balls in the back.

2. Have a healthy respect for the power of the past to hold you back.

“Yes, Dustin. You are delivered from one beer. Let Me tell you what will happen. Just like that door to the saloon opens up into another world, with another set of experiences, one beer will open a door to the complete array of temptations and desires that you just left. One beer will unplug a hole in your wall that will let all the bondages of drugs, and lust, and drunkenness flood back into your life. It’ll be like pulling your finger out of the hole in the dike.”

3. Press on – Have faith in the Lord to take you where you need to go.

Philippians 3:12-14 … but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The Direction of Your Affection Determines Your Action

Excerpt from my next book, “The Steel Wall”

Scooter’s heart ached as he took one last fond look at the stack of bricks. He opened the side door and gradually let it down, the wind plastering his face and tearing at his shirt as the sea rushed by 200 feet below. Whitecaps lined the tops of raging swells. He gripped the framework of the doorway hard and looked down.

“Oh Lord, there’s no coming back from a fall into that.”

He carefully maneuvered his feet as he picked up three bricks and shuffled toward the door. His gut had a big knot, like he had to shoot his dog, knowing he was throwing away perfectly good cocaine. He hesitated, thinking, “Maybe I don’t have to do this. Maybe they’re not there anymore.” He had already stowed his backup bricks in the baggage compartment, but tossing the rest in the water was more than a situational necessity… it was a calamity.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21.

There is no simpler way to describe why we do what we do… why we feel like we feel. Scooter was distressed about throwing out the bricks because the coke was his “treasure.” It was valuable to him, not just monetarily, but in his psyche, in his gut. Cocaine was an integral part of his culture, and coke smuggling was his lifeblood. He wasn’t born this way, but this is where life lead him. And, frankly, he had never taken the time to consider living otherwise.

The things that are important to us always motivate our actions. This is why it is so important to look at ourselves and realize what we value the most. I’ll pick three “treasures.”

Career: There’s no better satisfaction than working at what you love. Or pursuing a goal and achieving it.
Pleasure: To a single, independent young adult, there seems to be no greater rush than partying down and letting it all hang out.
Lifestyle: To anyone who has found their niche, there is no fonder fulfillment than soaking up the friends, the atmosphere, and the frills of the culture they have created.

Having our heart set on a career makes us persevere through college and low level jobs. If we are set on pleasure, we’ll spend lots of money and avoid things like commitment. If we are settled into a lifestyle, we may not even know there is an alternative out there, or we may not want to know. Either way, we are content to stay like we are.

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Colossians 3:2.

The good news is, we can actually do something about all this. Many cannot see outside of their present existence to know they even have a choice, but they do. We all do. In “The Steel Wall,” Dustin Morgan comes face to face with two cultures, two concepts of pleasure, and possibly two career choices, all hinging on where he will set his mind… what he will embrace as his affection.

That is our choice for 2018. Not resolutions, but where will you set your affection… on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God? or things on the earth?