From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
Someone once said, “Forget the past, but remember the lesson.”
Too often we have that one turned around and we dwell on the past but forget the lesson.
This leads to repeating that thing we keep focusing on from the past.
I was attending some daily services in one of our area churches the week leading up to Good Friday and Easter.
Each day during the noontime service there was a bird repeatedly flying into one of the stained glass windows.
I was annoyed by this and wondered why this bird didn’t “get it” after each successive crash.
Why would this bird keep doing something over and over that was painful without realizing that this was not the way to get what it wanted?
Then I realized about how often I repeat the same mistakes.
Years ago I kept dwelling on a particular failure I had committed against a friend and just couldn’t seem to get free of it.
I was then given a card with words of forgiveness and this verse from Proverbs 17:9: “He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”
That was a wakeup call for me and helped me to move on.
I chose to forget the event and learn from it.
You can do the same for whatever is holding you back, as well.
