A few years ago I took my wife to the house that I lived in until I was five years old. It was out in the country and I had not been there for nearly 30 years.
In my mind the house was a mansion. I remember the stairs being 100 feet tall, the front columns being as tall as trees, and the kitchen being so big you could feed an entire army inside it.
When we pulled up in the driveway I was shocked. It was no where near as big as I rememberd it to be. It was a beautiful home, but much smaller than my memory. It was a mansion in my mind.
Our mind has a pesky way of making the past a lot bigger than it actually was.
On the road to the promised land the people of Israel faced some difficulties. When things got hard, they began to misremember the past.
The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
Exodus 16:3
They remembered the food that they ate but conveniently forgot one small detail… they were slaves!
The journey has a way of doing that from time to time. We live in the past in one of two ways:
Nostalgia – The good old days were so good, there is not hope that my future will ever be as bright as it once was.
Regret – I am ashamed of the mistakes I made. My failures are so big that even God holds them against me. They are keeping me from moving forward.
Both of these are making too much of the past.
Let’s choose today to stop letting the past be such a mansion in our minds and keep looking forward!
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now…”
-Matthew 6:34 (The Message)
If you still have a pulse, you have a purpose! God is not finished with you yet, embrace all that God has for you today!
Some questions for reflection:
– Am I allowing yesterday to steal the joy of today?
– What is God doing in my life right now?
– What has God put in front of me today to make a difference?
Have a God day!
-Brandon
