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STOP REPLAYING MISTAKES IN YOUR PAST AND MOVE TOWARD THE FULL EMBRACE OF GOD
Remember the old expression, "Today's the first day of the rest of your life"? It is. Never get stuck in your past.
Learn the "power of now." Live the best you can in the present, which is your eternity. Move forward. Break out of the mold you may have trapped yourself in, which forms a crust around you. Unnecessary preoccupations with what already has occurred are weights on your legs as you try to sprint in the direction that God has mapped for you.
Once you've acknowledged (and corrected) a past wrong, let it go. Stop punishing yourself. You're looking in the wrong direction.
Let's say you've had trouble relating with someone. You just can't seem to connect. You just can't seem to get along. There may have been words said or actions taken that you regret, maybe just your attitude, which you wish could have been different, which you would like to relive.
Don't obsess on it; don't keep playing scenarios over and over. Love the person and live in the "now."
It does nothing to endlessly hash and rehash what has occurred. If you can project love toward a person who has troubled you in the past (especially in prayer), that's what God is looking for. He'll do the rest.
It's true that everything we've done and said and even thought in life counts and that one day we'll see our lives in review (like a movie) -- but that review won't focus on mistakes that we corrected, which are erased when we make the real effort at erasing them, with the aid of Confession.
Once that's been done, don't hover on it. Move on from the lesson.
It's the devil who tries to discourage you. When he reminds you of your past, remind him of his future. That's another old adage. Let's get back to having a problem getting along with someone. There may be residue. Baggage. You may still be bound to the person. There still may be tension. There may even be hatred. There is a negative soul tie.
But if you've resolved in your heart to love and forget, never rehash what they said or you said or what anyone did. It's not true that we can forgive without forgetting. Both are necessary.
Move on. Erase it. Chase away the memories with the Cross. Remember that the Crucifixion was key but also that God moved to Resurrection from the Cross instead of remaining nailed to it. Look how the thief on Calgary was able to find Heaven by turning his life around in the "present" moment with Jesus.
Move forward with love and the power of God will overcome all obstacles and even erase that past tension. When we fret over how others view us, we get stuck. Ask God to go back and straighten out what needs to be straightened, then move forward and don't worry about what anyone thinks. You can't make the water move back over the dam. Remember, Jesus did not say "I was" or "I will be." He said, "I am."
Don't replay mistakes. Let God go back in time and straighten it out. He is a time traveler. You are not. Shut off negative internal dialogue. Don't keep talking yourself down. Let God help you to stop the same thoughts from circulating like the neon ticker in Times Square (which goes nowhere).
Some say they forgive but can not forget and they fool themselves because they are still bound; they are still stuck. When negative thoughts recur, dismiss them. Transcend them. Stop the video tape. Put your heart not your head in the matter. Think with the best part of your spirit.
If you continue to replay situations, you'll never feel peace because you are not moving into His Presence.
God knows you'll make mistakes. There's no human who doesn't. It's why you're here. He doesn't expect you to be perfect. He does expect you to try to be perfect -- and when you're not, learn from what you did wrong and move on.
Ask not just for healing, but for His Sacred Heart. Here you find peace; here you find wisdom: by taking Jesus into your innermost self. View others with Him, and worry only about how He sees it. Stop the internal dialogue or it will block out His small, still Voice.
Live in the present and think in the present and you begin to approach the peace-filled atmosphere of Heaven because in Heaven everything is "now." If you can do that -- if you can focus solely on present goodness, expanding it, wishing others the best -- time whirls into a single force of love that heads toward God.
[resources: The Other Side]
[Michael Brown June retreat, Toronto: deliverance, spiritual protection]
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