I would guess that we all have several things we would like to erase from our life story. Maybe it would be all of your awkward teen years. Maybe it would be a terrible choice that you made that has had serious repercussions. Maybe it would be simply a time when you were naive or immature.
I have hit that age where I actually have grown a sizeable enough past that I can look reflectively upon it. As I think about who I was even five years ago I am blown away by the differences in my life now. When I think back on my times in high school and college I wonder what it would have been like to know what I know now. I of course have several times where I would go back in time and shake myself for some bad choice or for some style that I thought was cool at the time (you should have seen me in my hippie phase with my super baggy jeans with enough fabric to clothe a few families).
If I am honest, sometimes my past self depresses me. I begin to think about opportunities I missed because of bad decisions. I feel guilty all over again for bad choices. I become embarrassed at the thought of people still seeing my the way that I used to be.
When I begin to feel this way, I thank God that we are bigger than our backstories. We are so much more than our past. As Christians, our story has been completely rewritten. Rather than or stories being about a people who were lost and got more lost, our stories are about a people who were lost and then found. We once lived in darkness, but now we live in the light of truth of the gospel. This light propels us forward and takes our eyes off of our past selves. Instead, we look forward to the hope that each day brings as we are constantly being transformed into the likeness of Christ. As Colossians 3:19-10 reads:
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Knowing that the Holy Spirit is at work in my life allows me to go to sleep each night knowing that the next day holds new activities and opportunities that will draw me closer to God.
We are so much bigger than our backstories because God has made it that way. Again, we read in Titus 3:-7:
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Our past may still affect us, but it does not define us. I am a much better person than I used to be. I am a much better minister than I used to be. I am a better father, friend, teacher, and student. I am better because God chose to do a work in my life. Through his grace I am becoming what I was created to become. Through his grace you can become what you were created to become.
Journey of Faith 