Tyranny of the Past

Tue, 14 Jan 1997

Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 349 

     Here's another daily meditation from my recent book of devotions
     'Sunrise Sunset' (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco). Feel free to
     use/adapt it. These appear regularly on our mail-list.


     Shalom!  Rowland Croucher

     Director, John Mark Ministries - resources for pastors/leaders.
       (Bookroom, library, and worldwide F.W.Boreham Trading Post)
                 Home Page: http://www.pastornet.net.au/jmm


                         THE TYRANNY OF THE PAST.


[I was] a persecutor of the church. Philippians 3:3.


Paul had some great failures, but he learned to leave them behind.  The
biggest of all was his misplaced zeal in persecting the church.  What
sad irony!  Since his Damascus-road about-face, he's building up what he
once set out to destroy!

Who is there among us who has never failed?  It is tempting to
rationalise our failures ('if only I was a lucky as...') or to be
immobilized by them ('what's the use...?').

Some have 'tried the Christian life and it didn't work', and park by
their spiritual failure.  They're now sitting in the hog-pen in the far
country when they could be enjoying the hospitality of the Father's
house.  A pastor visited a man after he'd been found guilty of adultery.
'There's no use for me to try again,' he said.  'If I wasn't Christian
enough to live right when I had the chance, what's the point of trying
now?'

A famous psychoanalyst was asked by a reporter:  'What do you try to do
with your patients?' 'Our objective in analysis,' he replied, 'is to
free the patient from the tyranny of the past.'


Thank you for the past, Lord, and particularly that the past is past.
Encourage me to learn the lessons of the past, and move on. Amen.
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