A Black Hole

While watching a movie, all of a sudden one of the main characters said something that really caught my attention. He said: “Be careful with the past, because it is like a black hole. If you get too close to it, it can swallow you.” Time has passed and that phrase is still spinning in my head.

Let's start by understanding how NASA defines black holes:

A black hole is a celestial object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, including light, can escape it . They are regions of space in which matter is so condensed that they distort space-time.

How impressive, not even light escapes from being swallowed by these holes. Furthermore, they distort the relationship that exists between space and time.

Reading this definition makes me realize that the analogy between black holes and our past does make sense. The past can be a danger zone. If we get too close to it and think about it all the time, it can dim our light, consume all our time and distort our vision of life.

All of us think about our past one way or the other. There will be those who view it with indifference. Others see the past with a wide smile on their lips because it is full of beautiful experiences. However, I would venture to say that most of us have had mixed experiences and view it with a bit of nostalgia or with a certain distaste, depending on what we have been through. If we were offered the opportunity to go back and change some things, I think most of us would take the challenge and go back to fix some things we regret. However, even if it hurts, the truth is that we cannot go back and rewrite our past.

The way we deal with the past will greatly determine our present and our future. How about we ask God for advice and find out what He thinks on the subject? Let's be creative and imagine a conversation with Him that goes something like this:

-Father, I think a lot about my past. There are things I can't let go. What do you think?

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing! 

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV

-Lord, I want to change, but I feel that my past has marked me, and I don't know how. Would you give me a second chance?

For if a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person.

The old life is gone. New life has begun.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLV

-Lord, I mess it up, I wish I could go back and do some things differently

.

We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him.

Romans 8:28 NLF

-Father, I have made serious mistakes. My actions have harmed others and myself as well.

But I wipe away your sins because of who I am.

And so, I will forget the wrongs you have done.

Isaiah 43:25 CST

-Lord, I have wounds that I have not been able to heal for a long time. Things that happened in my past and still hurt me.

… I will apply a healing dressing to it and cure, and I will heal them,

and will reveal unto them an abundance of peace and truth.

Jeremiah 33:6 DARBY

-I don't want to leave the past behind. It has been the best part of my life.

 Don’t long for “the good old days,”

for you don’t know whether they were any better than these!

Ecclesiastes 7:10 LB

It’s clear that God does not want us to cling to our past. The Lord's power is so great and His love so strong that there is literally nothing in our past that He cannot restore.

Let us cast our burdens upon him. Let's leave the past where it is. Let us empty our hearts of regrets and fill ourselves with the hope that God offers us. Let us follow the advice of the Apostle Paul and reach forward to what lays ahead. Life here on earth is temporary. We are pilgrims, advancing on our journey towards the goal, until we meet our Heavenly Father.

… but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 MEV

Lord, what a great relief to know that I am not a prisoner of my past, nor of my mistakes. You have set me free. You have given me a second chance and today I take it. Thank you very much, Father. What would I do without you? Today I am moving forward. Today I forgive those who have hurt me. Today I receive your hope and let everything else go, knowing that you, like the good father that you are, are waiting for me at the finish line.

© Astrid Gale

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