Lent 2013, Day 31: Letting Go of Your (and Their) Past

Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

We’ve likely all had a few uncomfortable social media or real-life moments related to encounters with our pasts. Should you accept a friend request from John, whom you hadthe biggest crush on in fourth grade and who remembers those ugly cat-eye glasses you had? How about Jane, who was in cahoots with you on a bit of college mischief you’ve

Father, forgive the person who designed these glasses.

regretted ever since? Then there’s Joe, the son of a doctor and lawyer who went Ivy League while you took a course or two at the vocational school. These people all knew a different you, a less seasoned, less mature person than you are today.

Of course, that works the other way too: Maybe John’s had more sorrow in his life than he shares on Facebook or Twitter. Maybe Jane feels as bad as you do about those bad deeds from decades ago, and has discovered a more Christlike sense of right and wrong. Maybe Joe appreciates all the breaks he’s had, and works to help those who haven’t been as fortunate.

Or perhaps all of you are exactly the same as you were all those years ago, unchanged by a deepening relationship with Christ or the buffets and joys that life has brought you.

Not likely, right?

There’s a certain comfort in knowing that even back in Jesus’s time, it mattered to some where you came from or who your parents were or what school you attended. But that knowledge also brings a responsibility—to learn from the foolishness and arrogance of people who discounted a simple carpenter’s son from Nazareth and to delight in our brothers and sisters as they are today, rather than judging them on their pasts (or their fourth-grade glasses).