Should you forget the past?
I heard a great message this morning from Ravi Zacharias. I enjoy most of what I hear from him because he makes me think and encourages me in my faith. Today I learned something that went beyond apologetics and logic.
This morning my local radio station played the talk Ravi gave to a group of high school students that were about to go into college. He gave them a few pointers to help them prepare their minds before they went off to a secular school. He taught them why they needed to forget and let go of painful events that have been resolved or restored.
He explained that he had been writing a book (I think) and during that process he had to go back through some of the painful memories of his adolescence. He explained that even though he had been healed from those things they were still painful to think about. Being healed and restored from a situation or event does not mean that reliving it will not be painful. He encouraged the listeners to put those things that have been resolved out of their mind. Dwelling on the things we have been healed from will do us no good and will only open up all wounds.
I had never realized this concept in my own life. I probably have heard it before in one form or another but it just didn’t click for me. I think I had wondered why I thought I had been restored from something if it still brought me pain to think about or dwell on. The truth is we are not meant to dwell on those painful situations from our past.
It’s important to know that wisdom is required here. I hope I’ve emphasized what Ravi emphasized which is that this only applies to the things we have been healed from and that we should move on from. You can’t afford to put things out of your mind and forget them if you have never properly dealt with them.
Ramsay…this is a beautiful post. made me think.
Zach, interesting post. I too get a lot out of Ravi–books, lectures, debates, radio program, everything. Hadn’t hear this tho’.
Can you post something that will get us to that talk? I have a real burden for kids going into the lion’s den that is public post-2ndary ed. in America. My wife & I give J. Budziszewski’s How to Stay Christian in College (forgive the implication that you can lose salvation, which may be unintentional?). Of course, we always send them to apologetic “outfitters” like Probe.org, LeaderU.com. etc.
But I never heard mentioned the forgetting of the past. Judging from Facebook posts of high schoolers, it’s much needed.
See you on Twitter.
@byron – I wish I could post the link. I looked for it but never did find it at his site. Unfortunately I don’t remember what the title was.
“Forgetting the past” does not mean repressing anything. What Paul is talking about here is the fact that our past sins and failures do not determine our future. “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” (Romans 3:22) The flip side of that, however, is that our previous good does no good now. No matter what races we have won before, we need to focus on the race we are currently running. We don’t have time to stop and pat ourselves on the back.
(Excerpted from my post on self-control: http://www.khad.com/post/80439828/self-control)
It is so important for kids to learn that no matter WHAT is done, you can be forgiven by the blood of the lamb. That being said, forgetting something means that we didn’t learn anything from it. While constantly dredging up painful memories can be much more harmful than beneficial, once in a while it is helpful to look back and say “That didn’t go so well the first time…maybe God was trying to tell me something.”
By the by, if you don’t mind I’m also going to add your Blog to my blog roll at my website.
That sounds great, thanks.