The unhealed soul often wants to return to the past in an attempt to understand, resolve, or fix a tragic memory. Our mind somehow replays the memory as it tries to find resolution and peace. The problem is that the past cannot be changed. We can try to go back in our ‘emotional time machine’ and imagine how we could make things different. Or we can rehearse and relive the past over and over for some reason. But none of those strategies fix anything.
For any steps forward, we have to let the past be in the past. We can learn from it. And we can intentionally go back there to deal with a few things. But we can’t live there anymore. We can’t stay stuck in repetitive cycles and patterns, or dwell on old hurts. We may need to grieve the past, but living in that place of hurt or trauma only causes us to miss out on the possibilities of life today.
We definitely do need to make peace with things that affected us. If we screwed something up, we can go and try to make it right. We can confess our part of the problem and apologize. We can turn things over to God. And he invites us to ‘reason together’ with him, so he can make even the worst things in our life whiter than snow.
God doesn’t want us replaying our past hurts or staying stuck in our worst experiences. He wants to give us life. He wants us to move forward with him. But sometimes we have to be willing to get off the old circular train tracks, and go in a whole new direction. It isn’t denying the past, it’s just not dwelling on it anymore. We can move toward healing and heart restoration, which will likely not happen if we stay back there.
This is part of the grieving process. The process of letting go of the past and moving forward into our future. Our old self may have had all kinds of hurts and injustices. Or we may have been the one who caused the pain. But the only way out is forward. And God can do anything. He has a great track record of transforming people and situations from something fallen and broken into something awesome and new.
And ‘the past is the past’ when it comes to God. He is kind and understanding. He doesn’t hold our history over our heads. The enemy might throw the past in our face. People might remind us of our failures. We might even emotionally torment ourselves. But Jesus took care of it at the cross. We can always enter or re-enter our relationship and communion with him. Definitely confess your faults and be honest. Tell God the way you felt and how it happened. He is a compassionate Father. He will love you right back to where you belong.