Faith, Hope, Love

You’re past doesn’t have to be a bad thing; it can be a good “bad” thing……. if that make sense? I’ll break it down. Let’s say there is a particular part of my past that I am not proud of, but the fact that I am not proud of it drives me to do better and not repeat that “chapter/mistake”, thus making a bad part of my past a good life lesson, right – that’s not a bad thing. I used to avoid the past like the black plague; like I had been known to stroll the power tools in Wal-Mart to avoid someone from my past that is lurking in the camping section. Anyone who knows me, knows if I am in the power tools, I am probably lost…. Today it’s different. I don’t live in the past, I embrace it, I own it; I don’t have to repeat it, or dwell on it, but it’s mine, and as much as some claim to be a part of it (negative/positive), I am the one who LIVED it. I saw a young man today I have known most all of my life, and I have always considered a friend. 3 or 4 years ago I might have hid to avoid being seen, but today was different. I saw this friend for what was on the inside, and not for what I assumed he thought about me and my past. At first I thought “he knows me, he is well aware of my past; but will he accept me for who I am today?” Then he called me brother, and I got all misty eyed. We chatted briefly, but I could tell that he “saw” me, the today me, the re-born me; the Christ follower I intend to be. On his way out he yelled “I love you,” and he’ll never know the impact those 3 little words had on my soul. Guess what? I am proud of me today, I am proud of who I am, who I am becoming; I am living for the Great I AM. So, no……. The past is not always a bad thing; it is a good place to measure where you were against where you are. 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT), “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” And so it is, just as it is written. –KV