ONE thing many
children brought up in the church don’t have is an ugly past. I wasn’t brought
up in the church. Many people who were brought up in the church departed and do
have an ugly past — these prodigal sons and daughters. The church is no
guarantee that we will live clean lives forevermore, but it is a place where
those with an ugly past can go for solace, healing, redemption, and
restoration.
That term, “ugly past,” can fit so many of our
situations. Sometimes ugliness was brought on by ourselves. Other times it was
brought on by others. Occasionally it’s brought on by life. So, an ugly past
does not in any way equate to ugly personhood.
But, notwithstanding all this, God has a future
for anyone who would choose to transcend their ugly past. There are some who
will read this who will say, “Yes, I cannot help but agree with you; from my
direct experience… (or) through the experience of somebody else I’ve observed.”
Anyone can
turn their life around.
It takes tenacity and persistence. It takes
vision and determination. It takes sacrifice.
It takes situational awareness. It takes on a
journey context — moving further and further away from the epicentre of
destruction into peace-lit lands of contemplation.
It takes everything we have, and that’s because
it requires everything we have. But when we have very little, and what we have
is worthless, we see what we want of the good life, and we’re prepared to grasp
it with both hands.
There is a child involved; children, perhaps.
There is a partner in need; a partner to be loved. There is a home to restore.
There are lives to be reclaimed. There is peace to be had. There is joy to be
experienced. There is hope to be imagined.
Simply put, nothing else matters now than to
focus on the simple things of life. The dark life put behind us, the light of
life beckons through and we are content living with our very simplest needs
met. And God is good. He provides.
There is hope if we aspire toward that life of
simplicity in a complex world.
Nothing can be taken away from such a life and
certainly nothing of value can be added.
The best life prevails with profound simplicity
for the blessings incumbent in, through, and for us.
When darkness is gone we are so thankful for
the morning. There is a future that transcends all the ugliness of the past.
Believe and it will become true.
© 2015 Steve
Wickham.
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