The winding road of “Past” is marked by barricades. Places where everything that was going to be came to an abrupt halt. Something unexpected altered the course. From my perspective. Not from God’s. He knew.

Like you, I have experienced deep heartache, and astounding joy…neither of which I really want to forget. It is tempting to set up memorials at those places. The emotions we expended there dictate a certain remembrance. We want to locate them easily when we traipes through our own history. The peaks and valleys of triumph and pain should be seen on the skyline of our minds. Monuments we can visit.

But I hear Him calling me. “Come build an altar.” I hear Him asking me to offer my life to Him. Not just my present and future as some might think, but my past as well.

In the Bible, God instructed His children to set up stones of remembrance. These stones were not so they would remember their suffering. Neither were they monuments to their impressive escapes, routed enemies, or significant achievements. They marked the end of a season. They were places of new beginning. Letting go, and taking hold. A place to commemorate the marvelous keeping-power of God. He was faithful, wonderful, present, gracious, tender, merciful, powerful, and life-sustaining.

Erected in my high and low seasons, these memorials all bear His name as if it was “not I who lived, but Christ who lived in me.”

If you are ready for a new vision, a clear perspective, and faith for the journey ahead, it might be time to memorialize what He has done so far. It might be time to build a monument to the goodness of God, and lay it all down there.