Dear Friend,

This is a call to attend a funeral. But not an ordinary one.

There will be no flowers or viewing at this memorial service. There will be no songs or eulogies. There will be no pallbearers or processions. There will be no playing of taps for veterans and no food brought to the home of the deceased. There will be no obituaries or memorial gift requests. There will be no family members flying in from out of state or thoughtful neighbors and friends attending to pay their respects. Oddly, at this funerary ritual, there will be no tears, sadness, or grief. Why?

Everyone will be glad to see the deceased go. Go! Be gone! And good riddance! The deceased's name? The past! Yes, it is time to bury our past, every day and hour of our past life, including the few seconds it took you to read the opening of this piece. That time is gone. Forever. And it's not coming back. Ever! Jesus could resurrect Lazarus, but we can't resurrect the past. That's a truly impossible miracle - because God simply won't give it back. Not a moment of it. And any attempt to dwell unduly on the past is counterproductive, unspiritual, unwise, and a huge hindrance to making progress in the present.

The apostle Paul famously grasped this concept. Personally, and in writing, he summoned us to the past's funeral: "Brethren ... this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind ..." (Philippians 3:13). "Forgetting" speaks of a mental and emotional burial, a final, irrevocable laying of something to eternal rest. Again, fully grasping this subject, Paul intentionally mentioned this burial first, before adding, "and reaching forth unto those things which are before." The things Paul speaks of as being "before" him were all the things that remained in God's will for his life. Or, everything that lay ahead. What's the spiritual lesson in Paul's ordering of these statements?

Like Paul, we must "forget" before we can "reach forth." We must let go of all that is behind us before we can grasp all the things God has remaining for us in His will. Any refusal to forget impedes our ability to grasp. Or, to put it differently, every moment spent brooding on the past, or glorying in it, is a moment stolen from steadily, soberly progressing into the future God has for us. And it's a wonderful future. Oh, there will be challenges for sure, so that we may continue growing spiritually, but their passing stresses will be far outweighed by the enduring bliss of our victories. Yes, the adage you've often heard, "The best is yet to be," is absolutely true, in Christ. Want biblical confirmation?

Here it is: Jeremiah famously overheard God say, "I know the thoughts [plans] that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil [adversity], to give you an expected end [or the blessed outcome I have promised you]" (Jeremiah 29:11). But to get to this "expected end" we must bury our personal past, whether wonderful or woeful. Why?

If wonderful, we may be tempted to go back and relive past victories, accomplishments, and distinctions far too often. While comforting, this excessive indulgence in our past glory is also paralyzing. It feeds pride and impedes progress. We become content to be what we once were and cease desiring to become what God yet wants to make us. We forget there's more to the race that is set before us and that we must keep running until we reach the finish line: our physical expiration or our miraculous translation!

As a result, we imagine we have arrived when we're still very much in the middle of our race. Instead of "reaching forth" for more of God's Word, Spirit, presence, and the next kingdom duty He sets before us, we sit down and stop seeking, serving, and worshiping Him with our whole heart. And, afflicted with the half-heartedness of excessive self-esteem, we stop living wholeheartedly in humble desire and grow increasingly spiritually lukewarm, distant, and dull. And, finally, spiritually dead - and good for nothing to God!

If woeful, we may be tempted to remember our past sins, shortcomings, and follies far too often. We may forget our high calling remains, God's gracious favor endures, and, once confessed and forsaken, God has cast all our sins behind His back and forgotten them ... forever (Isaiah 38:17). And in this excessively low frame of mind, we may forget all our wonderful past victories gained by simply trusting and obeying Christ. Furthermore, like Elijah after he fled from Jezebel's threat, we may utterly misjudge our life, summing it up as a miserable failure when in fact it is a slow-but-steady success in the making - many wins mixed with a few losses, but we're still pressing on, still receiving God's help daily, still choosing to be hopeful instead of hopeless, still in the place God's put us in, still doing what God told us to do, and still faithfully on track for His glory, others' blessings, and our joy!

As a result, by seeing ourselves carnally instead of spiritually, we continue following the depressing, despiritualizing, downward spiral described above. We stop seeking God and start avoiding Him. We stop trying and start dying. We stop worshiping and start wandering. We stop singing and start sinning. And though God's ever-gracious Holy Spirit repeatedly sets a clear path of progress and victory before our mind's eye, for some strange reason, we don't take it. Why?

Our past is still holding us in its cold, clammy hands and constantly preaching to us its discouraging false gospel of unbelief: "You're carnal, foolish, self-opposing, helpless, hopeless, and loathed by Jesus!" Though the opposite is true, we believe the past's lying sermon. Then we proceed to confirm it by not seeking and clinging to the only unchangingly sweet and powerful One who can change the worst Christian into a wonderful Christian, and a stumbling doubter into a soaring believer, in one miraculous moment - if he or she will only yield, believe, and follow His instructions. And that begins by burying the past.
 
So, whether it is wonderful or woeful, our past deserves a decent, Christian burial. Let's make our funeral arrangements today. How?

Bury your wrong emotions and desires - anger, envy, jealousy, unforgiveness, bitterness, covetousness, worldly ambition, self-pity, fear of man, fear of failure - that, like heavy iron chains weigh you down, hinder you from walking freely with Jesus, and keep you shut tightly in the past's overpopulated prison of discontent. Forgive every past offender and refuse to recall his or her offenses ever again.

Bury your hindering memories. Forget your best wins and most painful losses and don't let them return to puff or haunt you ever again.

Bury your wagging tongue. Stop retelling your achievements to everyone you meet and stop confessing your sins and failures as if they were your permanent companions.

Bury your curious ear. Stop listening spellbound to gossip about others' past failures or to excessive, self-pity-filled sobbing about their cherished wounds or cruel trials that are worse than anyone else has ever faced.

Bury your bad habits. Recognizing your bad habits is one thing; terminating them is another. We do that by replacing them. Every moment we're unconsciously forming new habits. So be sure you're forming habits that conform to the spiritual disciplines, or "ways," of God showcased in Jesus' life. And every time you form a new Christlike habit, you bury an old un-Christlike habit.

Bury your old paths and companions. No longer visit the old places or old friends that got you into trouble in the past. Then, intentionally, and with prayer for the Spirit's help, take the right path and choose new, spiritually minded friends. As you entomb your old companions by abandoning them, pray for them, that they may find God's grace, and freedom from their past, as you have.

Don't want to schedule this funeral? Believe you can buck the trend and finish your course in Christ excellently without burying your past? Okay, go ahead and try.

But remember this: either your past or your future will be laid to rest. If you won't bury your past, your past will bury your future. And that's one funeral you do not want to attend.

Making arrangements now,

Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries