When You Can't Forget About Your Lost Love

One afternoon many years after the romance had died, I sat quietly in my favorite chair talking with God. In my mind’s eye, I saw two fields. One was dried up and filled with broken sticks and scorched plants. Nothing was growing there and I was standing at the far end of it, clutching some of the lifeless foliage. I was grieved and desperately wished there was still life in that field. Days gone by were surely better.

Then, I noticed a flourishing field right next to the one where I stood, and Jesus was there. He motioned for me to come to Him. Suddenly, I understood what I needed to do. I threw down the dead sticks and plants, and took off running and ran straight into His arms. He held me close and smiled lovingly, then asked, “What took you so long?”

Right then, I knew I had spent years wasting time, wishing that today was yesterday.

In that moment, I understood His message to me. “You’ve been standing in that field from the past for way too long, trying to get life from it, grieving over what it was. But I’m not working in that field anymore. That’s long gone. I’m working here now. This field is your life today. In the present. This field is thriving!”

Ecclesiastes 7:10 says,

“Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.”

It is not wise because looking back in regret chokes the life out of your days, which are finite. Once each minute clicks past on the clock, it is gone forever, never to be recovered. It’s not wise because it steals your joy. It’s not wise because it hinders your service to Christ. And it’s not wise because it’s not the truth. Every moment of every day is a mixture of good and bad, blessings and also things that wound.

But what is true, is that God is working in the present. As some say, He is the God “I Am” not “I Was.” He is always moving forward in new work and blessing you in the moments you have right now.

Are you looking back, believing that the former days were better than these? Are you standing in a field of regret, a field of loss, a field where life once was? Are you wishing God would resurrect something He was doing in your life before but is now dead? Join Him in His new work. Join him in the present! That’s where He wants to bless you.

What are you waiting for?