On New Year’s Eve of 1916, Oswald
Chambers, a well-known early twentieth century Scottish Protestant Christian
minister, a teacher, a chaplain of YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) and
author of the widely-read devotional book entitled My Utmost for His Highest,
spoke to a crowd of British Commonwealth soldiers in Egypt whose lives had been
overturned and battered by World War I. In his speech he said…
“At the end of the year we turn with
eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise
from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace is apt to
be checked by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is God of
our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into
a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest
we get into a shallow security in the present… Let the past sleep, but let it
sleep on the bosom of Christ. Leave the irreparable past in His hands, and step
out into the irresistible future with Him.”
Chambers was right in two things.
First, we should stop living our present life carrying yesterday’s load. If
pains of the past still bother your present life, remind yourself that your
past is already history and you can no longer change it. We should not waste
our energy on things that we can no longer change.
Another remarkable point that
Chambers mentioned in his speech was to stop living our life with too many
worries about the uncertainties of the future. Remind ourselves that no matter
how well-planned our life, there will always be some space for blunders,
crisis, setbacks, difficulties, etc. We plan our life because we are scared of
our future. But life is not perfect and too much planning will not make it
perfect.
If a calamity struck our lives in
the past, it should not pull down our hopes for the future. Instead, our past
tragedy should teach us to become stronger individuals and should prepare our
inner selves as we face the uncertain future.
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