Looking Back So We Can Move Forward

The past is a tricky thing. We all look back fondly at "the good ole days" & think about the good times in our past, but at the same time, we're also prone to get stuck in the past. Looking back & celebrating the good times is great, but when you get to the point that you try to recreate or live in the past, you have a problem. On the other hand, if you have some past hurt in your past that you can't seem to move on from, that past hurt will impact almost everything about your future. The past is a great place to go back to & visit in our memory to celebrate the good time, to mourn the bad times, & to learn from it all, but living there or trying to export the past into our present is dangerous.

In Nehemiah 12, Nehemiah & the people are about to dedicate the newly reconstructed wall around Jerusalem. If you've ever been to a dedication, ribbon cutting, or grand opening ceremony, you know those events are extremely future oriented. It's all about the excitement of what the future holds for a new facility, organization, or business. However, Nehemiah begins this section of his memoirs by looking back. He looks at a couple of generations from the past. One generation led the initial return from exile back to the Promised Land. They resettled the land & rebuilt the Temple. They were bold, courageous, & faithful. Then Nehemiah looks at the next the generation, the one that immediately preceded his. This group of people weren't necessarily bad or evil people. They were just negligent. Their lack of faith stands in stark contrast to the generation preceding them who rebuilt the Temple & the generation that followed them who rebuilt the wall. It's not that they did anything overtly bad; they just did nothing. Perhaps they were content with the fact that the Temple had been rebuilt. Perhaps no one was ever bold enough to say, "Let's rebuild this wall & city." No matter what was going on, it's clear this was a part of Israel's past that needed to be learned from but not celebrated. Nehemiah then turns his attention to his generation & those who would come after him. Those generations had already demonstrated their faith, but there was so much potential for the future too. As they looked forward to the future, they needed to look back: to celebrate & to learn.

There's something really important we can learn from this passage that can be so important for us in our faith, our families, our ministries, & our communities.

"Learning From The Past Can Direct Our Future,

  But Living In The Past Can Destroy Our Future."

Our past is going to play a part in our future. We can't escape our past, but we don't have to be imprisoned by it. We get imprisoned by the past when we either choose to live there because those were "the good ole days," & there's no way God could have anything else in store for us or when we choose to live in the past & be defined by some of its hurts & defeats. The truth is that if you're a follower of Christ, you should assume your best days are ahead of you. God is still at work. Your past is filled with things that you can celebrate & things you can learn from, but God is leading you to take those things & follow Him with bold faith into the future.

What things in your past are you holding onto that are actually holding you back? They may be past victories or past defeats, but either way, their in the past. What can you learn from your past so that you can follow God faithfully into the future.