Daily Wisdom 12-27-2001 Leaving It Buried

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Leaving It Buried

I've had to pay my sister-in-law handsomely so I could tell you this storyabout when she was a little girl - thanks, Val . . . she and her older sister Karen - who I happen to be married to - grew up on a little farm in the Ozarks. One day the family was blessed with the arrival of some new kittens. And 3-year old Valerie loved them very much. So much that she wanted to make sure they had something to drink. So she put them in their full rain barrel. I'm sorry to say, the kittens couldn't swim and the kittens drowned. Her parents asked her why she did such a cruel thing. Turns out, she didn't know it was cruel. She said, "They were thirsty." Well, some cousin insisted they have a funeral for the kittens - so he lined them up in a shoebox coffin and they gave the kittens a Christian burial. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end for little Valerie. She kept wanting to dig them up. And when she was told she couldn't, she just cried and said, "Wanna see kitties." No you don't, Valerie.

Unfortunately, it's not just little kids who want to dig up something that should stay buried. We do it all the time. That's why our word for today is 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." Paul reveals here a big secret of emotional and spiritual health - leave the past in the past. And don't keep digging it up.

Maybe you've got some wounds from the past - people that hurt you or let you down. Maybe your mom or dad . . . by the person you married . . . by your church or ministry . . . by a friend or associate . . . by your employer or your co-workers wounded you. It may have happened 30 years ago or 30 days ago. But you still feel the pain of the wound.

And how can you start to move beyond that pain? By doing what God calls us to do in Colossians 3:13 - "Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." And how was that? "Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives . . .You will hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19). Even though we have hurt God deeply with our sins, He forgives those sins and buries them! We're called to treat people, not as they have treated us, but as Jesus has treated us!

But there are people who are into life-long dredging operations - dredging up their grievances over and over again. And, frankly, they're not much fun to be around. There is darkness, negativeness, and a cynicism that develops in a person who keeps digging up the past. It's about as ugly and foul as those dead kittens would have been after they were buried. And nobody wants to be around that stink for long.

Will you ask Jesus, the Great Forgiver, for the grace to let the painful past go once and for all? If you need the help of a pastor or counselor to work through the pain one last, decisive time, do it soon. Dig it up one more time so you don't have to dig it up ever again.

It may not be sins committed against you that you keep digging up - but sins committed BY you. You're living with this feeling of being condemned, of being condemned, and being outside of God's love. If you have brought those sins to the cross of Jesus, please accept His promise about those sins - "I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." They're gone. Live like it! "Forgetting what is behind . . . press on toward the goal."

If you had been there when that little girl wanted to dig up those kittens, I know what you would have told her - "Leave them buried!" If you've been going back and digging up sins and wounds from the past, that's what God is telling you, "Leave them buried!" They're ugly, they stink - and they're gone.

Today's Daily Wisdom is written by Ron Hutchcraft, based on his popular radio broadcast,"A Word With You"."A WORD WITH YOU" daily devotionals are now available via e-mail. To subscribe send a blank email to:awordwithyou-subscribe@hutchcraft.com,or to request the "Yours for Life" booklet, fill out the form on this site:http://www.gospelcom.net/rhm/yours/yflorder.html. Ron Hutchcraft Ministries has been on-line with Gospelcom since February, 1996, providingpractical answers to real life issues. (c) 2000 Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.PO Box 400, Harrison AR 72602