When Forgetting is a Good Thing

The old dairy barn looked out-of-place, nestled between a restaurant, a furniture store, and a museum in the center of the city. It had once been a vital part of a large farm that had been swallowed by progress decades before. Everyone knew its days were dwindling, its destruction sure.  Finally, the day came and the old barn was torn down, its foundation filled in and the contrast of past and present gone.

The American barn is a mostly forgotten piece of history today, a sad, abandoned building standing in the distance as vehicles speed along interstate highways.  All of the work and life that surrounded those icons is long forgotten, too, with the fact that they were a means of survival for early settlers, a protector of both crops and livestock.

Sometimes, forgetting what lies behind is a sad “moving on.”  All the history of a thing that should be remembered is wiped out to make room for something new. Sadly, we often remember what we should forget and forget the things that represent something good. Our sins are like that. We go over and over them in our mind instead of asking God’s forgiveness, doing what we can to make a thing right, and moving forward. But God says that this kind of forgetting is a good thing:

No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us. Philippians 3: 13-14

Is there something in your past that you have tried giving to God, only to pick it up again and carry it into your future? It doesn’t belong here.  Remember, sometimes forgetting is a good thing!