Are you a brooder? One who mulls things over and can’t let go? I’ve certainly embodied Brooding Mary, and it ain’t pretty.
For a great deal of my life, I spent with spiritual whiplash, always looking back, always casting blame, using my pain as an excuse to stay messed up.
But then something shifted in me. I got fed up. I realized the more I stayed in the past, the more I reacted to it, and the more it haunted me.
God has called us to live uncaged, free lives. Of course it’s not good to stuff our pain or pretend it didn’t happen. We do have to look back to heal. But we don’t have to continue to. Our life is in the great right now, not the sad back then. We look back. We ask God to heal. We accept the healing. Why? So we can live joyfully alive right now. Smack dab in the moment.
Look at how the writer of Ecclesiastes ends these verses:
“Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life–this indeed is a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.” Ecclesiastes 5;18-20, NLT
May it be so that we stop right now, thank God for his raucous healing, and enjoy the moment.
Stop.
Feel.
Rejoice.
Hope.
Smile.
There is so much more to life than brooding.
Q4u:
When did you learn this lesson? How? What happened?
