What If You Could Go "Back to the Future?"
Posted by Mike Foster Yesterday marked the day that Marty McFly and Doc Brown in “Back to the Future Part II" blazed into 2015. Social media is going crazy comparing how the movie predicted the future and today’s reality. A movie made years ago is resurrected and we’re all curious because we all wish we could go back into the past.
Maybe there were answers there we left behind that if we could just change our past we would be better somehow presently. If we could hop into the DeLorean right now what would we go back and pick up? What passions have we left in the past that we wish we could bring with us back to the future? Someone told you to stop liking ballet because you were a boy so you quit but you know you could have made it a career if you would have stayed. Your parents told you there is no money in food industry so you went to college for business and are still longing to bake. Some one shamed you for something so you threw away a beautiful gift God meant for you to open and you sit, holding it wrapped, wondering what it could be if you opened it and did something with it. Take a moment to go back there and pick those presents back up.
Then return from the good ol’ days knowing you don’t have to be ashamed of the things you love and care about because God gave you those passions for a significant reason. And they may not have been left as far behind as you think.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).” In Christianese we would call the manifestation of what you’re good at and care about a “spiritual gift.” And though you may feel like your gift and purpose has been lost in time, I venture to say that it was instilled in you the moment you were born and that it never leaves you. You actually have carried your past passions into your present because it’s who you are, not what you’ve done.
Your love for your Easy Bake Oven has turned into making the best brownies for a party. Your child-like faith and joy despite circumstances is when you offered a smile to the person across the cubicle from you at work. You used to defend others at school and now your giving everything you’ve got to fight breast cancer.
While we all long to change something in our past, it’s those mistakes that have become our miracles. It’s our past passions that have made us into our present person. And nothing was left behind that shouldn’t have been because the world needs you. The 'affected by their past, broken but beautiful in their present, and aiming toward finding freedom in the future' — you.
Mike Foster is the founder of People of the Second Chance and the author of Freeway: A Not So Perfect Guide To Freedom. He lives in San Diego with his family and fluffy dog.