My dad died in 2003, then later my mom died in 2014, and so, at these very difficult times of great loss and grief, I found myself spending a lot of time and energy looking back. Naturally, this is a normal response when we experience the greatest losses in life, such as the death of a parent or a longtime spouse. Indeed, dwelling on the past with enormous amounts of mental and emotional energy like this is very much a part of the grieving process for up to a couple of years afterward.
Sadly, we can sometimes become stuck in the past — year after year, and even decade after decade — and this imprisonment in the past drains and robs us of being fully present right here and now. However, thanks be to God we can become unstuck by the good news of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord! By God’s great mercy, we have been reborn into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And this great hope lifts us up and rescues us from being hopelessly and endlessly stuck in the past and in our grief. As St. Paul the Apostle of Christ writes in his second letter to the Christians of the City of Corinth:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is achieving for us an eternal glory beyond all measure. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
(Second Corinthians 4: 16-18)
Similarly, we can be tempted into the trap of being overly focused (to the point of obsession) on the future. We can exhaust ourselves with worrying about what the future might hold for us. Yet again, we can find ourselves drained and robbed of being fully present right here and now, except this time the culprit is our anxiety about the future. However, the cure for this is the same cure that saves us from being stuck in the past. The cure is the good news and eternal hope of Christ! For our Lord Jesus teaches us with his immortal words in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew and in chapter 14 of the Gospel of John:
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life… But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for today is its own trouble.”
(from Matthew 6: 25-34)
“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
(from John 14: 2-7)
In other words, we should not obsess about what the future might hold for us, because we know The One who holds our future in his hands — our Heavenly Father. And because our Heavenly Father has provided his only begotten Son to bring us atonement, forgiveness and renewal of life, we have an all-surpassing future hope. Christ has died, yes, but Christ is now risen and we shall arise too. He is the Lord of all life and light and love, and this wonderful Lord is also the Lord of our everlasting future together.
Therefore, we need not fret over the impermanent nature of this temporary earthly existence that we all must journey through. It is a temporary condition during which we experience all sorts of tests and trials, but it is only momentary compared to the eternal glory that awaits us through Christ. For again as the Apostle Paul writes, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
The gospel of Christ empowers us to more gently row our boats through this life. Not futilely rowing backward against the flow of time, stuck in the past. Not frantically and exhaustingly rowing forward with great anxiety about the future. Rather, we are enabled to row gently down the stream — mentally and emotionally present in the here and now — by the power of the faith, hope and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
During our Lenten Season and on into Eastertime, and indeed for the rest of our lives, may we continually learn to row our boats more gently down the stream of this life — “merrily, merrily,” as the old song goes — for we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Blessed Season of Lent! Pastor Tim