So you’re probably all familiar with the 3 dimensions of space.  Length, Width, and Height are how we measure and define an amount of space.  We humans also live in a half dimension of time.  In that half dimension, we can travel forwards, but so far we are unaware of an ability to travel backwards in it.

How many things would you like to change in your past with the knowledge you now possess?  I can think of several things I would change, there are words I would not speak, and other words that were unsaid that I would be sure to say.  I would change my focus in certain relationships, and I would be so much more kind than I was in my past.  There are many things I would like to change.

If you have ever watched a time-travel movie, you realize how quickly changing things in the past can mess things up.  Marty McFly nearly erases himself from existence simply by saving his dad from being hit by a car.  Do we dare risk travelling backwards to change the past, in order to change the future?  It never seems to work out quite how we expect it to.

At least it doesn’t work out very well in the movies.

What if I told you there was a way to change your past, and by changing the past affect your future?  I assume that you will think I’ve had a bit too much holiday eggnog, and write me off as a nut(meg) job.  What if it were true though?  What if we could make changes to our future?  Well, I am proposing to you that it can be done.  You can start here in the present, visit your past, and change your future.

Here’s how it works.

Have you really confronted your past?  Have you owned all of your mistakes, accepted that you ultimately bear the blame and are responsible for your actions in that moment, regardless of the circumstances you were in?  If not, do so now.  Take a moment to travel back to whatever that mistake in your past was, confront it, and accept the responsibility for what happened.  As you return from the past with this responsibility, you will find that your present choices are affected, and your future will be different.  You may discover that you are far less willing to hurt someone again, once you accept the full weight of the responsibility for your actions.   Perhaps you will think before you speak in the future, or alter the way you approach the same situation if it happens again.

You have changed your future by confronting your past.

There is one other method of time travel available to you.

Have you made peace with your past?  Have you accepted that those things that happened have happened?  Perhaps someone has betrayed you in a way you never thought possible.  Perhaps someone took something from you without asking and with no intention of returning it.  Perhaps someone has even stolen your peace through their actions in the past.  Again, return to those moments and confront them.  Make peace with each difficult moment, accepting it for what it was.  Forgive.  Forgive the person who hurt you, even if they haven’t asked for forgiveness.  Travel back to that moment where you felt the knife in your back most keenly, turn to the person who placed it there, and tell them that they are forgiven.  Forsake your right to revenge, and move on.

As you return to the present, you will find that you can approach the rest of your life differently now.  You have changed your future.  You have broken the power of the past to hold you on a certain course.   You have changed the past.

I don’t pretend that any of this will be easy.  There is also one more thing to be done.  It is perhaps the hardest single thing you may have to do.

Accept forgiveness.

Now that you have owned and confronted your past, Jesus is waiting with forgiveness in hand.  You can find the peace that was denied to you in the past.  Jesus has already done the work to offer you this forgiveness, and we are celebrating his arrival on earth those so many years ago right now in this season.  The present, right now, is the perfect time to change your future.  You don’t have to be stuck in the future dictated by your past, Jesus has opened up other paths for us.  You can find peace in the future, in spite of a troubled past.

Use the present, to confront the past, and change your future.  Travel in time.  Seek peace.

(Oddly enough, Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” was the inspiration for this post.  Give it a read if you have a few hours this holiday and you’d like to be challenged.)

Be sure to check out the other people on the journey with me at 254peace.org, or on our Facebook page.  There are some awesome people participating this year, and they all have something important to say.