Achieving spiritual and mental peace in a world full of change.
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Navigating Change
Achieving spiritual and mental peace
This one has been on my mind for a long time. How do we deal with change. Children get older, we change jobs, we have people come and go in our lives, loved ones die, finances get good then bad then good again. Life is just full of changes.
Restoring our house. Yes, restoring. We let it go far too long. Change and the downstairs door.
It’s not so bad. Politicians in office for decades. It’s not so bad. I’m a little overweight but my health is decent. It’s not so bad. The plant closed down years ago, everybody moved away. It’s not so bad. My boss is abusive, It’s not so bad. Pharaoh is killing our male children and making us slaves. It’s not so bad.
How many times have we talked ourselves out of changing, even when it’s plain as the nose on our faces that Yahweh is telling us to change. Or, in other words, how bad does it have to get?
Slide 2 Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Messiah Yeshua. Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Messiah Yeshua. (Php 3:12-14)
At some point we have to leave Egypt. Paul is using flowery language here to tell us not look back. Lot’s wife did and she chose to die with those of Sodom and Gomorrah. Once we enter the Red Sea, there’s no turning back. That’s with salvation and our relationship with Yahweh and His Son, though. What about the other parts of life? How do we know when it’s time to change that job or make other big decisions? On the other hand, how do we know when our long -term habits aren’t bad or are even good? Does it matter if I keep forgetting to use that door? Even though I realize from time to time how silly it is for me to keep going upstairs to go outside, across the deck, down the deck stairs and walk over to exactly where I would have been if I just had used the door that I keep forgetting works now. Again.
What about national sins? Israel was commanded to leave Egypt. And then chased out. And put on the other side of a sea so they could not go back. But they were also commanded to remember being slaves and their liberation. Paul talks about forgetting what lies behind, but can we really do that? Or should we even do that? To a degree, we need to. Once we are born again, we become new people in Messiah and we need to move forward with that fresh start. But we also need to remember where we came from for the sake of contrast. And for the sake of empathy and compassion:
Slide 3 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. (1Co 15:9-10)
The same guy who wrote that we need to forget the past and focus on the future also reminds us how he used to persecute the followers of Yeshua. Paul puts forth a healthy mix for achieving spiritual and mental peace. We need to look forward while remembering where we came from and thanking Yahweh for delivering us from our sinful pasts. Yeshua has provided the payment for our sins and we are free from them, but we also need to remember them as they become more distant memories. We also remember them so we can embrace those who join us on this path and reassure them that our new lives are indeed much better once we embrace the Torah and the Messiah.
Judgment day is explained in detail in Revelation 20. At the end of this age there will be a reckoning. The books will be opened and all will be made known, both good and bad. And at that moment, we will realize the depth of Yahweh’s justice, love, and mercy. We will have similar moments in our lives. My mother passed last year. Going through her papers and mementos was very emotional. I found a will she crafted when I was somewhere around 18 years old. She and my father were going on a sailing trip. Being poor, it was the only nice thing I really remember them doing when I was a kid. While they were on the trip, I threw a house party and wrecked the family car. She wrote a will to make sure my niece and nephew they were raising at the time and I would have what we needed to finish being raised while at the same time I was an out of control teen. I had forgotten all about those events in the last 30 years because I would never do such a thing again. And my own children were raised in such a way that they would never think to do such a thing. Reading that will was very emotional and a small precursor to what will happen for all mankind on Judgment day, when everyone finds out how Yeshua loved us all while we were yet sinners. And then comes this.
Slide 4 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.” (Isa 65:17-19)
After it’s all made known, and judgment is meted out to both the righteous and the wicked, we who are saved will move on into the olam ha ba, the world to come. We’ll move into eternity, a sinless eternity, where we will have no need to remember our former sins. What a wonderful time that will be!