As we drove through Coeur d’Alene, it was amazing how people’s names came back to me. Names I hadn’t thought of in the 38 years since I moved away. It was a graphic reminder of how much we are marked by our early years, whether we realize it or not. These were people who played a role, however large or small, in imprinting me for good and ill.
In the evangelical world we often assume, without scriptural warrant I might add, that having come to Christ we simply become new creatures and our past has no continued impact on how we view life or the choices we make. It is true that Paul exhorts us to “forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13) and he states clearly that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) But the fact that he has to intentionally “forget what lies behind” assumes that “what lies behind” is what is most naturally what he thinks about. The reality is that we are more marked by where we’ve been than we are willing to admit. This is why we need to continually renew our minds and allow God to change us from the inside out because for years we’ve been changed from the outside in. Unless we are intentionally allowing God to disciple us in all the areas of our life, where we've been will be were we are.
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