What is in your closet? You may be thinking about your different clothes or the many pairs of shoes. But I’m not talking about that closet. I asking about what is in the closet of your heart? As you ponder that, you will most likely begin to think about past hurts, scars from broken relationships, betrayal, rejection, unfaithfulness, personal failures, gross mistreatments and maybe even abuse. Now – what have you done with those?
Some have allowed those deep pains to be buried and fester. They have built their world around those and blamed all of the negative things that come their way on those wounding events and the people who caused them. While hurts are very real and can even be quite debilitating, we do have a choice of whether or not we camp there. I recently read a colleague who said “It is impossible to reach and stretch for the future when we live in the pain of the past.”
In the book of Genesis is the account of Joseph and his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt. This happened for a number of reasons, one of which was the fact that he was their father’s favorite as was demonstrated by the gift he received of the beautiful multicolored coat. Joseph experienced betrayal, hurt, and even imprisonment to a degree not experienced by most of us. Yet, Joseph was determined to trust God and not allow his horrific experiences to be either fatal or final.
Many of us have endured relational devastation along the way in our journey – perhaps even by our spouse – the person who we should most be able to trust. It is sad and unnecessary when that happens. But it has and it does. Now the question is – what are you going to do with it? Will you allow it to paralyze your existence or will you stretch and work through it? Will you give up or will you re-engage with your spouse and build new bridges? I want to encourage you with words from Philippians 3:13-14. “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
I hope that today you will begin to let go of the past pain in your relationships and press toward the future in what just might possible be.