Posted September 21, 2010 By Tony Miller
While I was a guest speaker at a conference focused on “relaunching” ministry recently, one of the other speakers made this statement – “Will your history be your ceiling or your foundation”?
What an impactful statement? Each of us are challenged by the pull of the familiar (our history) and the fear of the unknown (the future). For most, our approach to our history is to either romanticize it or demonize it.
When we romanticize our past, we tend to remember things as being better than they really were. We talk in terms of how great it was back then, how things seemed to be more impactful, etc. In reality though, how many of us would like to return to some of the limitations of our history? Singing with an overhead projector and words handwritten? Flannel boards for children’s church? Typewriters … only using house or office phones? No, it wasn’t that great!
Or, we always want to demonize everything from our past, believing that everything that took place was horrible or less than.
In reality, we live in the tension of the moment. Our past becomes the foundation for what our future can become! I challenge you today to not allow your history to become your ceiling, causing you to live on Memory Lane. Rather, allow it to become your foundation, a springboard, into the destiny God has intended for your life. The journey will be amazing!
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