A friend of mine posted on Facebook how reading ones old writings from the past, say in high school, and remembering who you used to be can be cringey. You remember the nasty things you said, the ignorant things you felt, and how sometimes you were just plain dumb. I also thought of how sad it can be so look back and realize some of the innocence that was lost before that time or the current one and how distressing that feels. As my friend said, you no longer recognize yourself, neither the person you were nor the person you have become.
Some of the changes we experience in life are for good. We all need to grow up, and many of us are glad we aren’t the people we were in high school! Other changes are not good, and thinking on them make us wish that we could go back and reclaim that person.
But we are here now, and we can cling to another change and a new hope as we consider the promises we have in Christ since we are now a new creation in Him:
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
~ 2 Corinthians 5:15-17 ~
I’m Christ, we have been made new. We no longer think of ourselves in terms of the world and its views, either “good” or bad. We no longer dwell on the past put press on towards what Christ has called us: eternal life. We no longer follow our sinful nature, but work the fruits the Spirit works in us.
We may look on how we were in the former days, and they may cause us brief moments of pain, regret, and “cringeyness”. But we should not dwell on these former things. The Lord has planned for us great things both now and forevermore. We have been made new. We are not what we were but have been transformed by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and adopted into the Lord’s family. So let us recognize in ourselves the Lord’s transforming love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness that we may live our new lives for Him. We are not who we once were, and it is for all the better.
Blessings to you and yours,
~Rose
The Fingerprints of God 