The Mess

"I did what you won't do," my business coach declared from stage.  It seemed like he was talking directly to me.  

"Ugh," I rotate in my seat.  How many times have I made excuses that it is too hard, or that I am just too busy?  Too many to count.

"How old do you have to get before you stop blaming your past for your current failures?  You were abused?  You were rejected? You were a victim? Get over it.  You were made for far more than your misfortunes."  How many times do you blame your past for your current rut?  Your past existed.  There is no sense in pretending it didn't.  But there comes a time when you need to realize your future is more important than your past.  There comes a time when you have to stop acting as if your misfortunes are the defining title of your life.  I have a past too, everyone does.  But at the end of the day, it isn't the past that will define you, it is the way you respond to the past.  

I have honestly written a blog similar to this, but I have been re-inspired to focus back on the truthful subject.  In all reality, there are way too many people who will forever be controlled by their hurtful past, because they are unwilling to do the work to overcome it.  It is painful, it will not be easy, but allowing growth in a dead area of your life will push you far past that of an ordinary failure or success.  There is no way to see yourself for who you were made to be until you address the pain.  It will be there, anchoring you to the ground until you release it.  But only you can untie that knot and release yourself.

When I was growing up, us kids would get ourselves into various difficulties.  We would get caught in something, our hair matted beyond understanding, or cords in some irreversible mess.  In our childhood ways, we would run to our mommy, compassionately named the Knot Doctor, to help ease the mess.  She would patiently sit and detangle the mess and then we would be on our way again.  We need that Knot Doctor, and let me tell you, it isn't going to be another person on this planet.  Only God can truly detangle the mess life made.  But you have to go to him.  He will only fix it if you ask.  You have to ask, because your future starts now.

"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 3:13-14