William Faulker famously noted, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."

I wonder if he ever spent time in my office.

People bring a lot of baggage from their past that ends up poisoning their present. Both things done to them and things they've done to themselves.

Sometimes I despair of helping people break free of the hold that the past has on them.

Which is why as both a pastor and a pilgrim, I've got to hold on to Paul's testimony in I Timothy 1:13: "Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief."

Think of all the words you could substitute for blasphemer, persecutor, violent man -- drug addict, gang banger, adulterer, abuser, victim.

Those words matter much less than the ones that follow: shown mercy.

That's what I need when I become mired in my past. Perhaps you do as well. Mercy that's undeserved and unending.

So with that mercy as our fuel, perhaps we may be able to prove William Faulkner wrong after all.

Colossians 4:12 says this:

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

What an interesting phrase: wrestling in prayer.

We usually limit our notions of biblical wrestling to the story of Jacob in Genesis 32. But the practice evidently did not end with the patriarchs.

Epaphras struggled in prayer. He anguished in his prayers. Like Jacob, I sense that he would not let go of God "unless you bless me." (Genesis 32:26)

Yet as interesting as "wrestling in prayer" is to us, the purpose behind the smackdown is even moreso: "for you." Epaphras struggles in prayer for the sake of the Colossian church.

To the extent I wrestle in prayer, it is usually for myself and my needs. But not so with Epaphras. The maturity and assurance of the Colossian church merits his most fervent, difficult prayers.

For whom will you wrestle in prayer today?

(By the way, I noticed these words especially today because I was reading in Colossians . . . out loud.)

I have been spending some time in Ephesians recently.

It's actually the place in Scripture I go whenever I am feeling spiritually malnourished.

Yet in all the times I've read that letter, I had never noticed 4:22 where Paul describes to the Ephesian Christians what kind of life they are lead as followers of Jesus:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires

The idea of "deceitful desires" sticks with me.

Because that's the way it is with many of our desires, isn't it? They deceive us into thinking that by meeting them we will achieve contentment.

But the reality is that many of our desires promise much more than they deliver.

It's a deception to think that the affair you desire will satisfy you sexually and emotionally.

It's a deception to think that the fame you long for will satisfy your ambition.

It's a deception to think that the larger, better, nicer house you desire will fix the problems your family is having in the house you're in now.

It's a deception to think that the next drink or next line of coke you desire really will be your last. Until you get serious about recovery, it won't.

So many of our desires are futile attempts to meet the needs for which God has already made provision in his Son.

What desires are deceiving you today?

I'm quite sure it's not original with me, but recently I have been praying that what God does to me he would then do through me.

So that if he fills me with joy, that same joy would then flow through me to others.

If he drenches me with the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit would then move through me to others.

If he overwhelms me with his love, that same love would then radiate from me to others.

If he gives me serenity, that same serenity would be then travel through me to others.

I guess it's like this: I don't want to be a cul-de-sac, hoarding the blessing of God for myself. I instead long to be a connecting street, so that I give whatever blessings I receive.

What do you long for God to do to you or in you? Give him the space to then do that same thing through you.

John 5:24 got me today:

I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

We usually feel like we have to wait for the other side of the grave to "cross over from death to life."

But I believe Jesus was talking about something much more immediate.

As in now.

What if, because of the words of Jesus, our marriages crossed over from death to life?

What if, because of the words of Jesus, our levels of anxiety crossed over from death to life?

What if, because of the words of Jesus, our expectations of the future crossed over from death to life?

What if, because of the words of Jesus, our levels of selfishness crossed over from death to life?

And what if, because of the words of Jesus, our churches crossed over from death to life?

Jesus is the ultimate Life Giver. Not just then, after we die. But now, while we're alive.

I want to live today as one who crosses over. Will you?