What to Do When Life Doesn't Make SenseSample

Don’t Look Back

If you study the lives of successful people—in the Bible, in ministry, in sports, in Hollywood, or the business world—you’ll find that many of them have had bad things happen to them, and they all had questions.

Despite their traumas or disappointments, they left the past behind them, survived the pain, and moved on. When they were knocked down, they rose up. They persevered through heartache until they came out the other side, stronger.

Some people who’ve had something bad happen to them, stop right there. The bad thing defines them, and they never move ahead. My heart hurts for those people.

I truly believe that one huge key to success in life is the ability to leave things behind.

The storms of life come to everyone. Despite how you feel when down, you’re not the only one who’s had hard things happen to them. Everyone has. It’s what you do during the storm that determines what happens next.

When I think of leaving the past behind, I think of the apostle Paul, who wrote a large portion of the New Testament.

Here was a guy who early in his life had facilitated the beating and killing of Christians! But Jesus got hold of Paul (Acts 9) and he became a Christian. When he made his first attempts to preach Christ, all of the Christians feared him. But he kept on.

If anyone had a right to feel bad about his past and quit, it was Paul. Without God’s help, he could have been eaten alive by guilt. Or at the very least, he could have chosen to stay in the background and never preached the Word. Philippians 3 said he did one thing that helped him press forward in life: he forgot what was behind. I, for one, am glad he did—otherwise, we wouldn’t have a substantial part of the New Testament!

Make that your goal when things happen that don’t make sense—forget what’s behind it and press forward. If Paul did it, you can do it. You can ask your questions, put them on a back burner, and then continue “cooking” with God on the front burners of life, moving forward with Him. It’s what I learned to do after my husband died, and it’s what you can do too. Here’s some help.

You can learn more about today's content in my book Why God Why.