Exodus 20:1-2 - And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
I’m a big fan of Alexander Hamilton. Or at least, the version of Alexander Hamilton portrayed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the Broadway Musical. Truthfully, I don’t know much about the guy apart from the play.
There is a scene in the musical where Alexander meets his future sister-in-law, Angelica Schuyler, for the first time. She asks him where his family is from, and he responds with a line that is foundational to who Hamilton is supposed to be and what drives him in life: “Unimportant. There’s a million things I haven’t done.” In other words, my past isn’t important. What’s important is what I’m going to do in the future. If you know anything about the rest of the musical, that attitude of always seeking to move on to the next thing (or conquer the next thing) not only shapes his choices but often ends disastrously for himself and those he loves.
Despite that, the line resonates with me. I have a very hard time thinking about what has already been accomplished and prefer to think about what still needs to be done. The idea of rehashing something that happened even just yesterday often feels unnecessary to me. I’d rather talk about what we’re going to do tomorrow.
The more I reflect on God’s interactions with his people, however, the more I realize how deficient that view of the world is. God is constantly asking his people to remember what he has done. Nearly every time there is a new and important interaction where God is speaking to his people in the Old Testament, he prefaces his comments with a reflection of his past victories in the life of his people. He takes the time to remind them of who He is.
God doesn’t want us to live in the past, nevertheless he doesn’t want us to forget it either. Our desire to avoid the past may be because of a pain that someone caused us, a moment of shame that we can still feel, even years later, or just a general discontent with our circumstances that makes us long for a better future. Failing to reflect on what has occurred in our lives, however, often leads us to miss the fingerprints of God. How he is moving and working in our lives in a way that we didn’t notice in the moment.
Take a moment to reflect on what God has done in your life, so that you can remember that your present and your future belong to him.