Today and Tomorrow

The following was written at the turning of the year. The year is unimportant but that it was written on New Year's Eve probably is.

Looking Back to the Future

We stand at the turning of a minute.

Just one moment in time.

Yet this moment

like no other

is a point of no return.

Time is ever onward in its flow,

we are very aware of the hands that move.

Aware of the tick of the passage of time.

The past takes on new meaning. 

The future holds new hopes.

The sorrows of our yesterdays

become the sadness of our now.

The mistakes haunt us with their hurts and wounds.

The joys touch us briefly, 

and we try to catch them once again,

in the whispered memories of the year now gone.

Part of that bundle that we call life,

what will we take

what will we leave?

As we stand at this momentous point,

let us place into the hands of God,

the bundles with their hurts, 

the sorrows and the joys.

Let God sift and cast away the chaff,

the joy let us retain.

Now know he waits for us once more 

in the tomorrows of our days.

The same yesterday, today and again tomorrow.

Yesterday and Tomorrow

Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those that eat them.

Hebrews: 13  8-9

It is a very easy thing to say that the past lies behind us and forgotten, that there is nothing we can do about past mistakes. I am sure we have all heard the words said to us, "Forget it, that is in the past and tomorrow is another day." 

But is that in fact the case? Is it so straightforward a thing to put the past behind us?

The past so often comes back to haunt us in the present. So often just when we thought all of those little nagging things from the past were now laid aside some little chance remark made by another brings it all flooding back.

We all make human errors, nobody is beyond making mistakes. We become very conscientious of them and we might make genuine efforts to put them aside and seek to make amends.  Apologies are made for any harm or hurt caused and it seems that it is now, in fact, something of the past to be forgotten. Then sometime later, when least expected, something is said and all the feelings come flooding back and once again you are made to feel those same hurtful feeling as if it was only yesterday.

The past can haunt us and very easily you can relive the painful experience all over again. Sadly, they are often brought back into the light of day many years after they happened and brought out into the open by the very person who has said you were forgiven and it was a thing of the past.

It is not an easy thing to let go of the past. But it is possible in the spirit of faith to go back with the source of that faith. For many, this will be Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. For others, it may be the Chi or energy of life that has been there and is there at all times.  If you have such a trust in the stillness and calm of a moment of thought go back with that being or energy and allow the healing balm of time to be poured out onto that moment as you let it go.

Deal with it in your inner being and let it go.  It often helps to make a note of this physically on a sheet of paper and to silently read it as you leave it in the past setting fire to the page and letting it flutter off and out of your life.

No longer is this an internal sore that eats away at the core of your being. It has now been removed by that in which you lay your faith or trust.

The past need not niggle at your present or disrupt and spoil your tomorrow but it will not happen just by attempting to suppress it deep within. A definite decision to cast it aside has to be taken. Consign it to the past of history and face the day afresh and renewed.