Been there and not again

       I know someone who laments every single thing in their life. Everything is a problem, everything centered around them. Stories are repeated time and time again. It really is quite tiresome to listen to this person.  It's not that bad things have not happened, they have but at some point you have embrace goodness and move forward or forever be damned as a whining, self centered complainer.

        I have had some horrific things happen in my life, haven't we all?  I also had some great times. Recently I was at work and was discussing a conference I went to for 20 straight years. It involved learning but the best was the fun surrounding the conference.  I had great times, made great friends. I am no longer willing to spend the time, the money and the travel. I am getting too old for the young shenanigans. I could lament that.  My view is that I had a great 20 year run. The memories cannot be taken away, nor can the good times. It is now time to move on with those wonderful memories intact.

       Living in the past of any kind is not a good idea, good times or bad. It serves no useful purpose to rehash the past especially when they are bad, and we all have had those bad times.

       In today's passage we are given spectacularly excellent advice from Jesus. ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’  God is all about love, the present and the future. If we believe we have hope and we look towards the future, not to the past.

Luke 9:51-62

 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’