How to Get Out of a Haunted House

There is a saying that the military is always fighting the previous war. I don’t know how true that is; certainly previous experience tends to effect our perceptions of current situations. In the case of the American military, the experiences on which to draw run pretty deep, and the saying cannot be applied indiscriminately. It would not be applicable, for example, to someone like Patton.

For those of us engaged in spiritual warfare, fighting on the basis of old battles and, especially, old losses, is an ambush of which we must beware.

Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.”

But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” --Luke 9:61-62

This statement by Jesus has long been one that troubles me. There were, in Luke’s version, three situations Jesus addressed regarding those who would consider following Him. First was the man who offered to follow Jesus anywhere, and the Lord said, “If you’re following me for earthly gain, don’t bother. I don’t even have a bed I can call My own in this world.” The call came to a second man, and he said, “I need to bury my father first.” Some say that the man’s father was not yet dead, so he was really more focused on traditions and possibly his inheritance than being part of the kingdom. Jesus replied that there were plenty of spiritually dead people available who will respectfully turn a corpse under to the benefit of the worms rather than the buzzards.

As for this third man we have quoted, his house is his life. What he is really saying is that he has to break away from some pleasures and joys and preferences as well as some bondages, to “say good-bye” to his old ways before he can be free to follow. I think of the three, this unnamed person is the one most likely to have actually broken away and become, if not one of the Twelve, at least a disciple among the 120 on the Day of Pentecost. I take this from the Lord’s response, which is similar to what Paul says in Philippians: Forgetting what is behind, I reach forward to what is ahead.

In some ways, I had an idyllic childhood, but there are things that marred it. I was something of an outcast for various reasons – not the least of which was a viciously vengeful attitude toward anyone who crossed me. I resented being unpopular, and my response made me more unpopular. I carried all that around for quite a while. Some people saw it as me having a chip on my shoulder. I thought if I moved away and got a fresh start with people who did not know me, I’d do better. But anyone who has ever watched a Hallmark Channel movie knows how that turned out. It’s a cliché because it’s so true, and because most of us never give up on it.

I continued to fight the last war. Every event and relationship was interpreted in light of what had gone before. I kept trying to put the past back together in the present, but that meant dragging the past into the present. If you saw a man with a ball and chain on his ankle getting ready to race in a 440 against unfettered runners, what would your anticipation of his finishing position be? Only when I gave up on redeeming my past by my own efforts and began to simply follow Christ did the cycle of antagonism and conflict end.

I worked with some people when I was immediately out of college for a couple of years. Ten years after I left, I returned to work with them for a few months before we moved to Texas. At the end of a job interview prior to my being rehired, the interviewer said emphatically, “You’ve changed!” And I had. Yet, in certain circumstances, especially around “old” people, to this day, I find myself fighting, and occasionally falling into the old response of defensive arrogance. Family, in particular, is a challenge in this regard. All real friends – even if they happen to be kin – will allow you to change and grow.

We cannot plow a straight furrow looking over our shoulder. We cannot enter the Kingdom if we will not enter the Kingdom. Being a disciple is not a matter of fixing all the broken pieces of the past, getting everything in order, and then running to catch up with Jesus. It will never happen. Leave the past to Jesus. He will redeem it in His own way, in His own time. Meanwhile, center that old Rock at the end of the row between the mule’s ears, stick the plow in the ground, and holler, “Hup!”