Sometimes the most difficult part of moving forward is letting go of what is behind us. This can be a loved one, a job we lost, or a home we thought we would live in forever. As we go throughout our life we will encounter people, places, and things that are necessary for a part of our path and others that will be with us for the entire journey. While we may not understand the reason for the ones we lose, we must keep moving forward. We can never reach our destiny if we keep looking for what is behind us.
It is difficult to let go sometimes, but we cannot grow new roses if we use all of our water on dead plants. So, let go of the past and focus on the garden you are growing today!
“Don’t worry about people from your past there’s a reason why they didn’t make it to your future” Adam Lindsay Gordon
Sometimes the most difficult part of moving forward is letting go of what is behind us. This can be a loved one, a job we lost, or a home we thought we would live in forever. As we go throughout our life we will encounter people, places, and things that are necessary for a part of our path and others that will be with us for the entire journey. While we may not understand the reason for the ones we lose, we must keep moving forward. We can never reach our destiny if we keep looking for what is behind us.
It is difficult to let go sometimes, but we cannot grow new roses if we use all of our water on dead plants. So, let go of the past and focus on the garden you are growing today!
“Don’t worry about people from your past there’s a reason why they didn’t make it to your future” Adam Lindsay Gordon
One of the biggest problems I see is people not wanting to let go of the temporary. Frankly it's been one of my biggest struggles in life, but we cannot have success in any aspect of our lives. If we cannot move beyond the temporary and continue to step forward in faith. See if we're not careful, we can put all of our energy and all of our work into perserving something that was only there for a season. God brings some people, places and things into our lives to get us from point A to point B. Someone you thought you would spend the rest of your life with, that job you thought you would retire from, or the house you thought you would never leave.
We have all lost stuff along the way and sometimes it makes us feel like a failure because in those moments, it's really hard to see the blessing. But as we move forward and grow older, we realize that what or who we needed in those times were not necessary for the long haul. One of my favorite songs is one that Alan Jackson wrote a few years back and one of the verses begins with the older I get the fewer friends I have because you don't need a lot when the one's you got have always got your back. Isn't that a great line! And isn't a true, as we grow older, these lines become more relatable to who we are and who we have in our lives. I've told you before that one of my biggest weaknesses is putting faith and trust in people. I have had people in my life that of wronged me. Whether it's in the business deal or even family. Now I am really good at not holding grudges. I can let go of whatever wrong they done. I really can. I can forgive them and still love and pray for them, but I struggle with the disappointment that they were not who I thought they were or who I trusted. I have to tell myself they are in my past for a reason and the wrong they done to me is just a lesson for my future. There is a blessing in a lesson in everything.
I just finished reading first Samuel and I love those stories about when Israel first started a point in Kings. Remember it was Samuels job to go out and anoint Saul as the first king. This is a good example of what I'm talking about here. Samuel had to learn this lesson with Saul. Samuel took Saul under his wing as a child and trained him up to be the king, but unfortunately Saul later got off track and God said he was taken away as anointing and giving it to David. Now I'm sure Samuel was crushed and may have wanted to ask God what the heck! You sent him to me, I trained him up exactly like you wanted, and now I have to go tell him that he's lost his anointment. I've invested my lifetime and energy in him. But remember what God said, how long are you going to mourn over Saul? That's it! God is asking us the same thing. How long are we going to mourn over the ones that have heard us in the past?
We have to move on. When people can walk away, let them walk. I don't care how great they are or how much you love them. Our destiny is not tied to anyone that's left us. God chooses people to help us move forward in our destiny, but some are there for a good time and some for a long time. Just like the Bible says in first John, they went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest and that they were not of us.
Friends. Time is something we can never get back. I don't care how much money you have, you can't buy back time. So every second that we spend worrying about something or someone that's behind us is a second we're losing. Think about it this way. If you will think about an hour glass full of sand, turn it over and let the sand begin the flow. Now the sand on top is the life that we have now and the life that is in front of us, but the sand on the bottom is gone and it can never come back to the top. Look how fast that sand on the top is flowing into the bottom. So why would we waste any of those grains of sand on top worrying about the one's on the bottom that we can never get back? None of our Sand on the bottom of his perfect and there's going to be a lot of dirty sand and all of our glasses, but we can't grovel over it because the sand on top and never stops. Look, you don't have to dig too deep in my sand if you want to find the little dirt on me. I have lost jobs. Had businesses fail, sent bridges up in smoke. I've let so many people down and even hurt people that I love and care about. And it tears me up just thinking about it, but that's in the sand that I can't get back. So I just have to try to do better with the sand that I still have. See who we were yesterday and who we are today and who we become tomorrow doesn't have to be the same. We can't get back or even change any of that sand and the bottom, but we can learn from it and do better in the sand that we have left today. God knows about every single grain of sand that's in the bottom of our glass, but even he is not going to flip it over. He tells us that once he forgives our sins, he forgets them and that we should to. We have to let go of what's behind us. I mean, cherished the great memories and learn from our past mistakes, but don't dwell and regret. Don't mourn over people that have left us behind, move on and move up.
You know, maybe there's something that we now want but we feel it's too late. And we look in the mirror and see the age in our eyes and say, oh, I wish I had another child or I wish I had done more with my career or have been a better son or daughter or a better friend…STOP. We cannot go back and change it. But what we can do is focus on today. Yeah. Maybe our biological clock has expired and our body's or too worn down to do some of the things that we wish we had have done, but we woke up this morning and we have a breath in us right now. So there is something God has for us to do today or something he's allowing us to do today. Stop wasting any more time and do it.
Another one of my favorite books and the Bible is Ruth. It's a really short book, I think only like four chapters, but it's just jammed full of great lessons. And this is one of them. Remember when Naomi's husband and her two sons died? She was very close with her Daughter-in-laws Ruth and Orpah. When they all became widows she had told them, look you two are still young, so go find yourself a new man. And Orpah kissed her goodbye and did just that. But Ruth said, Nope! Don't urge me to leave you or turn back from you. Where are you go I will go, where are you Stay I will stay, your people will be my people, your God will be my God, where are you die I will die and there I will be buried. We all need someone like Ruth by our side, but Orpah,wasn't a bad person for leaving. She was only meant to be in Naomi's in life for that period of time where Ruth was meant to be by her side for life.
We will all have people that are in our lives for a designated time and others who are there for life, but don't worry about the people God removes from your life. He sees things we didn't see, knows things we do don't know and he made moves that we wouldn't make. Every friend is not going to be a lifelong friend. If you need them for the future, they will stay. God puts people in our lives for a reason and some for just a season. But if we're going to reach our true destiny, we have to learn a kiss things goodbye. We may not understand the reasons. Things may not turn out the way we expect it. People may walk away, but I promise that God would not allow that to happen if he didn't have something better in front of us. There are people and things that were ordained for our past, but maybe not for our future. Maybe we needed them for a season, but all seasons change, we cannot embrace the new things God has for us as long as we keep holding on to the old ones. We can’t grow new roses if we use all of our water on dead plants. So let's let go of what's in our past and focus on grow and what we have to do.
And with that, I'll close another episode of the Blue Collar Executive podcast. I hope you found some value here or at least found it entertaining. I hope you don't spill a drop on dead plants and the flowers that you grow today are beautiful and vibrant.
And thank you so much for listening.