Keep Moving Forward

It’s dreary and icy outside. If I’ve learned one thing over my driving career it’s to respect the ice. Sleet and freezing rain are not your friends. Those two weather conditions link to words like “twisted metal”, “jack-knifed”, and “pile-up”. Best to stay inside when the WeatherBug map shows pink.

Rather than heading out for my weekly dose of worship, I decided to watch some TV. After all, Sunday mornings on AMC provide a nice collection of MadMen reruns as they build up to the final 7 episodes of the series. I’ll miss Don, but I’ll miss Roger most of all.

As I flipped through the channels, I caught a brief statement on one of the stations. “Moving forward”, Joel Osteen’s message for his congregation broadcast to my home. I lingered for what seemed a moment but ended up being 30 minutes….

To watch, go here and look for Message 592 “Move Forward“.

Here are the notes I took during his telecast:

It’s easy to live in the past and the regrets that accompany it
Focusing on the past keeps us from realizing a new future
Don’t let the past poison your future
Think of your life in terms of a car windshield and rear-view mirror. Where you’re going in the future is far more important than where you’ve been in the past
Travel light. Let go of the baggage
Focus on what you can change. Forgive and go on
Avoid living in a victim mentality (ie. what life, work, or the other person did to you)
Be disciplined in your thoughts. When you find yourself mulling over the same old hurts and transgressions, change the mental channel
Let the doors to the past totally close so the doors to the future can open
You can only carry so much – Put down your old hurts so you can carry new, positive attitudes
Will you let a season of mourning turn into a lifetime of mourning?
St. Paul, “Forgetting what lies behind, I strain towards what lies ahead.” Strain indicates work, effort
What I thought was my darkest hour turned out to be my brightest hour
Recognize there are places in life where something is over and done. If something is dead in your life, don’t die with it. Be willing to walk away.
By holding on to something that’s dead I lose enthusiasm for life
I have the ability to say, “I don’t know why this was taken away but I believe there is something better for me if I let go of the past.”

What’s done is done. How much am I beating myself up? How much guilt and condemnation am I holding on to? Life is too short to hold on to a giant bag of regrets and fear putting yourself forward into a new future. Every morning is a chance to start optimistic and new.

I especially liked the story of the divorced woman who lost her new partner because of the old baggage she brought into the relationship. The new love couldn’t handle it, he left because she was rooted in the past.

So how do you let go of the past? The internet has an answer for everything…

5 Ways to Let Go of Past Hurts (by PsychCentral)