Going Backwards In Order To Go Forward

I love watching the Olympics. Track and Field has got to be one of my favorite things to watch.  Runners always move forward. You never see them go in the opposite direction. However, when it comes to the long jump, in order to move forward, you have to first go backwards, and the further back you go, the longer will be your jump.

The bible teaches that when we invited Jesus into your lives and surrendered to His Lordship, we were placed “in Christ” forever. Paul says that we were “made a new creation in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17).  Being “in Christ” has many wonderful benefits, such as:

In Christ, you are the very righteousness of God!  (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:7-9)

In Christ, you are perfect!  (Hebrews 10:14)

In Christ, your sins are forever forgiven and forever forgotten (Hebrews 10:12, 14, 17)

In Christ, you are God’s friend (Romans 5:10-11)

In Christ, your redemption is eternally secure!  (Hebrews 9:14)

In Christ, you are God’s Temple, a member of His Church and body (Ephesians 2:19-22)

In Christ, you are sealed and gifted by God the Holy Spirit! (Eph. 1:13, 1 Peter 4:10-11)

However, I ask myself, since all this is true for me, why then do I still struggle?   The answer can be frightening. For many of us, in order to move forward, we need to go backwards. We have to go and revisit our past and deal with unfinished and unsettled issues.  

Such things may involve a bad decision we made that we often times regret or try our hardest not to think about. It may mean making contact with a person we don’t want anything to do with. It may involve reliving the trauma of being abused sexually and physically.

Underneath the surface of our lives, we continue to live in the negative patterns of our past which were shaped by our family origin and past experiences.  How we handle…

Conflict,

Gender roles,

Failure and success,

Parenting,

Grieving,

Singleness,

Money,

Pleasure, are often influenced by our past that messes up how we think and behave in the present.  

Personally, I do not like to go beneath the surface and travel back to my past.  It’s too painful.  Just the thought of having to revisit my life with both my alcoholic parents, the sexual abuse by my uncle, and bad decisions I made which almost wrecked my life and first marriage are taboo.

But if I don’t go and revisit the past – especially if such experiences are still affecting the way I think and behave, then the pain I am trying to escape only magnifies negatively and hijacks the beauty of my present reality.

So what should I do?  In order to go back to my painful past, I must travel back and interpret those experiences through who I am in Christ as a new creation.  Jesus’ work in my life frees me from self-condemnation.  How I was treated and what was done to me I cannot change. But in Jesus, I am a new creation, therefore, despite such things, I am changed by the grace of God.

It is only by the integration of the Gospel over time, does my walk begin to match my position in Christ. But it takes time and the courage to go backwards in order to move forward. There are still lessons for me to learn from my past that I have not yet fully understood. God does not waste a hurt. All things do work together for good.  Nothing which has happened to me, even the trouble that I have caused is not without golden lessons.

If I walk up to the line and try with all my might to jump forward, I will advance a few inches. However, if I step back, way back, and then look ahead and fun as fast as I can, when I come to the line and jump, I will advance several feet, much more than standing still.

Going backwards may seem scary. But moving forward successfully is not an option. It is what a person “in Christ” must do. It’s worth the journey.