Stuck

 I pulled into the drive at the house the other day while talking on the phone. I typically park under the car port, but on this day I was driving a different vehicle I typically park  that truck in the grass next to an oak tree. I did not turn sharply enough to avoid the tree so I ventured into a little dip in the ground directly behind where the pulpit used to be in the old sanctuary. The front tires rolled slightly into the dip. When I reversed the truck to back out the wheels began to spin. I was stuck. I gunned the gas hoping to catch traction and get out of the dip. More spinning the tires but no backward momentum. I was definitely stuck. 

Have you been there? Not so much stuck in a vehicle. Stuck in sin. Stuck in past mistakes. Stuck in regrets? Stuck in condemnation?

I wonder how many people around the world live everyday stuck. They are unable to live productive lives because they are stuck in the past. They spend so much time looking over their shoulders at what they have done or not done that they cannot move forward. Stuck spinning the wheels of energy on something that cannot be changed. The past should be just that. The past. Gone. Over and done with. Done. History. Behind. 

We are exhorted in Phil 3:13 to forget what lies behind and to press forward to what lies ahead. Sometimes what we did in the past caused pain to many people. It might even have destroyed some people. We. cannot undo that. All we can do is move forward in faith trusting God to help us in following Him. We do not have to be defined by our past. We do not have to wear a scarlet letter shaming us for our failures. God wills to forgive and to redeem. God desires to restore and renew. You do not have to live your life stuck in the past. 

Do you want to know how I got the truck unstuck that day? I put it in drive and pulled forward then back to reverse several times rocking myself out of the dip. Sometimes the way to get unstuck is to intentionally choose to go forward when the natural thing is to keep going backward. To pull that truck forward meant I was driving deeper into the dip in the ground. It did not feel right. In fact, I thought it would only make matters worse. Yet that is exactly what helped me eventually rock the truck out. 

Today we have a choice. We can keep focusing on our past. We can mourn past sinful choices. We can focus on our failures. Or we can choose today to go forward. To forget the past. To focus on what lies ahead instead of what lies behind. We do not have to spend another day just spinning our wheels in the direction of a past we cannot change. Yesterday is gone. It cannot be recovered or recaptured. Through Jesus, yesterday can be redeemed. It can have redemptive value as we learn lessons to help us navigate life that lies ahead. We do not have to remain stuck. Choose to go forward.