SAVORING GHOSTS

My wife and son always point out how often I seem to dredge up the past. It isn’t necessarily a great habit to get into, but for me it is part of the continuing process of thought that allows me to weave the past into the present for the sake of understanding. I just don’t always share those links when I’m rambling on about some episode in the past.

I’ve heard the saying “forgive and forget.” It might be wonderful if we had the ability to both forgive and forget every pain and wrong that happens in our live. I’ve known people who tried by shear will and a lot of prayer to give to god some ghost of their past.

And that is certainly for the Christian and admirable approach. However I remember in this one conversation I had with one person he told me how he had done this in terms of feeling guilty over some “ghosts.” He then went on to tell me how in some cases he had to do it thirty times a day and in some cases even more.

While that might have worked for him in terms of the illusion that he had somehow rid his life of that ghosts, to me if your still haunted by that same specter then you really are free of the affect of haunting. It might sound wonderful to say, but I do question whether it really was all that beneficial if in the end you still are regularly visited by the same ghosts.

For me the first step towards dealing with this kind of situation is to be truly honest about how you feel. First with the Lord, not because he doesn’t know, but because by our confessing it the result forces us to say it till we can see it for what it is.

I don’t think there is a formula that can be applied, which will fit every situation perfectly. We are all different and we need to depend upon the Holy Spirit to help guide us to facing those ghosts in a way that will truly work in our lives.

And the plain fact is that in some situations that means being able to admit that we have hate in our lives. And that it reaches to our very core.

Again I emphasize that we are all different, so I’m not suggesting that is true for everyone. But I do know that I’ve seen way too many people that just couldn’t bring themselves to admit their hate was truly hate. They had to out of embarrassment or fear over what somebody else might think avoid facing this truth.

However if we can truly with God’s help face the ghost and accept our true emotions, then god can do for us what he did for the Apostle Paul who battle his thorn in the flesh. I don’t know what that thorn was because the scriptures never give us the details, but I d know that the Lord told him that his “grace” was sufficient. It meant that God told him he wouldn’t remove this thorn, but that God’s unconditional favor and love would see him through to eternity. And to me it meant he was telling the Apostle, “face that ghost, see yourself for who you really are and know I love you anyway.” That is my version of course. But when the ghost becomes to strong and the soul is full of negative emotional thorns, the grace of God is something that can if we let it see us through to the next day. And good or bad, I try in faith to accept that is sufficient for my life too.