Breaking the Past

I am a little annoyed right now driving around the streets of my hometown. It seems like in every turn I make I run into a construction site. Two major East-West arteries here are reduced from three lanes down to one. THREE of the main North-South roads I used to cross those construction sites are having work done as well.  You would think someone would coordinate this madness. Now the road I use the most often in my getting around town tells me in January to “Expect Major Delays” until August. I remember an expressway here being under construction for 4 years. That’s FOUR YEARS!

But how I love a nice, smooth, well-planned, and new road! I love it so much I forget about the pain quickly after the last of the orange cones are removed.

We always dread the mess in our way but how we love a new kitchen a few months later. We will pee in buckets for months, wipe drywall dust off our electronics, cover couches with cloth, and wipe-down windows weekly ALL to have a newly renovated and restful room to enjoy.

We must often break the past to have a better future. Not break WITH the past, but we must break the part of the past that has a hold on us, keeping us from a better future. That part of our life that says “Hey, we always done it this way! Why would you want to change anything?” The problem is that the present keeps slipping into the past and what works today keeps changing into something that worked yesterday.

It is, of course, an analogy for our lives and the changes we need to make too. So many people that I run into have broken down expressways in their lives that they just cannot strip down, deal with the mess for a while , and renovate into something new. My mom (or dad, or brother, or sister, or friend, etc.) hurt me so much that I must hang onto that past even though it is crumbling and full of potholes. We prefer the broken down street that we know to the mess of the construction zone. We want the NEW and SHINEY lives but we don’t want to go through the orange cones and “road closed” barriers to get there.

“How can I do this?” you ask? It is simple to say, but hard to do. Start with small steps and work to the bigger ones. Grab a friend who is willing to go on this journey with you. Get professional help. Rest in God’s presence and not in your comfortable present.  It is time to break the past.