Looking Forward From the Past

The whole of life is meant to be lived from a whole-of-life perspective; all facets of life — including all the broken bits — considered as unifying in the oneness of us as persons.

This, surely, is what Jesus had in mind as He delivered the Abundant Life edict, as recorded in John’s Gospel. Jesus invited us into a worship which is by the Spirit, in the truth. That worship is the Abundant Life.

The Abundant Life takes all a life, inclusive especially of the ugly events, and gives us the capacity to build meaning for the present so we can experience hope for the future.

We’re neither our pasts, nor are we one of many fabrications of the future. The Abundant Life is neither the lies of past, nor is it one of many dreamy vanities of the future.

We’re only what we possess in the present; acceptance of which is the goal of the Abundant Life. And if the past informs us to accept what’s gone, for the resilience to endure that we’ve shown, matched with God’s faithfulness in carrying us, then we have hope indeed.

An irrepressible hope is the Abundant Life. Such a presence may exist despite all outward appearances. It’s all a matter of the heart. And only God matters, there.

The murky past reconciled is a proof-text for a hopeful future, and the present experience is the Abundant Life. It doesn’t matter how murky the past was.

Looking forward from the past allows sight for a reliable present where future endeavours are focused through a lens of truth.

Looking forward from the past is not about being stuck in the past. It’s much more the acceptance of those seasons of life as part of the foundations of our overall life. Our past has informed us of what we wish to live for. Only when we’ve reconciled those seasons past can we step forward into the present experience of the Abundant Life. History will prove us blessed as we look back, a whole life lived.

So, the past is our ally; it is something with which to face and ponder and accept, even celebrate; especially victories, which are borne on the wings of defeats. Besides trauma that complicates reconciling the past, all reconciliation is achievable. And reconciliation — all of it — too, is the Abundant Life.

May God truly bless you as you plumb the accessible depths and ascend the climbable heights of the Abundant Life God has for you!

Steve Wickham.