Breaking Free

Mindful Christianity recently posted: "If you continue to carry the bricks from your past, you will end up building the same house." I used to have a pastor who always said if you always do what you always have done, you will always get what you always got. Same concept - repeat the same things over and over and the results really don't vary all that much. Mix things up a bit and you will see entirely different results. Stop carrying around all those bricks from your past and you might actually see something new being built from much 'lighter' and 'durable' material!

I pulled you in from all over the world, called you in from every dark corner of the earth, telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side. I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you.’ Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. (Isaiah 41:10)

We may not know how we got to the place where we are today, finding ourselves with bricks and bricks weighing us down, but we do know one thing - we have to drop the bricks! God isn't going to carry us AND the bricks! If we want to be healed from all of that junk in our past, it is time for some of us to finally lay down the load of garbage we have been carrying. Ever look at the difference between your footprint in the sand when you are carrying all that stuff along the shoreline to the place you finally lay it all down, then look at the difference in the indentation of your footprint AFTER you lay it all down? There is clear evidence you laid down the load by the 'lightness' of your steps.

God knows it can take more than a bit of strength to carry that load from our past failures, but he also knows it can take equally as much strength to finally admit we don't need to carry that load anymore. For years I carried a load of guilt over some sins in my past - they weighed me down, causing me to feel loads and loads of guilt and shame. One day I heard Christ clearly tell me they were part of my past - not my present. I asked how I could ever be free from feeling the guilt and shame over those sins and do you know what he told me? Stop trying to convince yourself you HAVE to carry them. He knew I wanted to be free but didn't believe I could ever lay down the shame - I was trying to 'make amends' for things I could never 'amend'.

We all think we can amend our past just by carrying it around with us long enough for us to 'find the fix', but the truth is that we aren't ever going to do anything to amend the past. Only God can restore what we damaged, destroyed, or diminished by whatever it was we "did" in our past that led to that shame. As we confess our sins, he is 'faithful and just to forgive us' - forgiveness is more than just lip-service with Jesus. It means we get a clean slate - all things old are removed and the new is dawning. He gets a firm grip on us and helps us break free of those guilty, shameful 'bricks' once we are willing to lay them down. Just sayin!