Disclaimer: the movie reference is not an endorsement; it is merely an illustration.
If you lived in the 80s, it’s hard to imagine that you didn’t know about the Back To The Future movie franchise. “Released on July 3, 1985, Back to the Future introduced audiences to Marty McFly (Emmy and Golden Globe winner Michael J. Fox), a small-town California teenager who is accidentally transported back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean invented by his eccentric friend, Doc Brown (Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd). Stranded in the past, Marty must ensure his teenage parents (Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover) fall in love or risk erasing his own existence. With time running out, he teams up with a younger Doc in a last-ditch effort to harness a bolt of lightning and return to 1985.”1
Today is National Back To The Future Day. Why today of all days? Hang in there! I’m going to make my point in just a moment.
On November 22, 1989, Back To The Future II was released. Back to Future Day is all about the second installment in the franchise. In Back To The Future II, “the DeLorean arrived in the future, October 21, 2015, at 4:29pm.
“The movie recounts the adventures of Marty McFly, having used Doc Brown’s specially modified DeLorean to travel back into his past. He was just escaping the Libyans that were after the plutonium that Doc Brown used to power his time travel experiment, but it led him on a series of crazy events in the distant past.
“Why is this date of importance then? Because in the sequel he traveled to the future to solve some issues with his children, and Back to the Future Day takes place on the date he arrived according to the movie.”2
Now, imagine you had Doc Brown’s DeLorean and could set the computer for any date and time in the past that you would like to go back and fix. What day would that be?
Have you ever caught yourself wishing for such an opportunity? Maybe you can’t think of anything major to fix but there was an event that was so amazing that you would like to relive once again.
I think it’s safe to say that there are events we can all think of that we wish we could do over. We would like to take back ugly, hurtful words or wicked actions. We would treat someone
better and spend more time with them. There are probably some things we wish we could have done differently while we raised our kids. There’s almost an endless list! If only we had that DeLorean!
Well, as we all know, we can’t go back to the future. What’s done is done. Sure, some things might be able to be made right. We might be able to undo some damage. But far too many things are irreparable and if we spend too much time dwelling on them, we can get very discouraged.
We all have a past. Some pasts might be darker than others but there is still a past for which we are ashamed. Paul, a man who had a very bad past in regards to Jesus and His church, had this to say in Philippians 3:13-14. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Leaving the past in the past is one of the best things we can do. I’m not talking about things that need to be made right. If there is any hope of rectifying past sin and errors of judgment, we must take advantage of the opportunity. But if the ship of reconciliation and reparation has sailed, we need to get things right with God regarding those matters and then press on.
Paul wrote in Acts 20:24, “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” He had to forget his failures, knowing that they were under the blood of Jesus, and focus on the future. The Lord had something for Paul to accomplish and Paul couldn’t allow anything to get in the way.
Each child of God has a work to accomplish for the Lord before this life has ended. Let’s not get bogged down in the past, wallowing in regret. Again, let Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 give you the push to do what the Lord has called you to do.
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. (25) And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. (26) I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: (27) But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
1https://www.backtothefuture.com/news/2025/8/29/universal-pictures-celebrates-the-40th-anniversary-of-robert-zemeckis-oscar-winning-sci-fi-masterpiece#:~:text=Released%20on%20July%203%2C%201985%2C%20Back%20to%20the,eccentric%20friend%2C%20Doc%20Brown%20%28Emmy%20winner%20Christopher%20Lloyd%29
2https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/back-to-the-future-day/
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