History Matters

“Experience isn’t the best teacher—evaluated experience is.”

— John C. Maxwell

History matters.

For good or bad, what is happening around you today is the result of decisions made in the past. Some of them you may be aware of, many you will not be aware of. But if your future is going to be better, you are going to have to deal with the past.

Pretending that things didn’t happen when they did or refusing to go into a dark area of your life because you’re afraid of what you’ll find is living a lie or willful ignorance, and surely you see that that can’t end well.

Like a stone thrown into a lake, subtle it may be, but eventually the ripple from that stone cast is going to wash up on a distant shore.

In the same way, you are experiencing the ripple affects today of decisions that were made in your past.

Bottom line, things don’t just randomly happen. Events from your past are still contributing to the trajectory of your life.

If you want to change that trajectory, the answer is not just starting fresh today, the answer includes digging into the past and resolving some things.

Of course you don’t live there, but you must go there.

This will be tough and include things like confrontation, restitution, real forgiveness, and some honest and frank conversations with God about your role in your history and also questions about His role (“God hurt” is real and must be dealt with.)

The ONE THING for today: Things don’t just randomly happen. Events from your past are still contributing to the trajectory of your life. If you want to change that trajectory, the answer will include you being a proactive historian.

Proverbs 28:13 (NKJV) He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

For a case study of this principle read the account of Israel’s embarrassing and deadly defeat in Ai. (See Joshua 7).

Note how one man’s private actions affected an entire nation. (No one is an island! Your decisions and actions matter, not just to you but to countless others.)

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash