Most people who know me know that I graduated from the greatest high school ever, Carver High School in Winston-Salem NC. You might not agree with that last statement, but hey, it’s my truth! So after graduating from college I had the opportunity to go back and teach at Carver for 3 years. Definitely one of the most fulfilling moments of my life. The chance to go back and give back to a place that offered me so much. 

Five years ago I was surplussed from Carver. This means that there were too many teachers in the building and some of us where forced to go to other schools. Out of all of the schools in the WSFCS District, I ended up teaching at my rival high school, Parkland. Now if you are from Winston or the surrounding areas. You know the Carver/Parkland beef. I could not believe this is where I was going to be planted in the next season of my life. 

One thing about Carver is that we’ve always had a pretty good football program (state champs in 99 and in 02). Coming to Parkland was different because football just wasn’t our strong suit. So this year, for the first time in 4 years, my former school and my current school were going to play each other. This was the talk of the town! Because I’m an alum and because my baby brother starts for Carver, I’d already made up in my mind that I would be sitting on the Yellow Jackets’ side. Interestingly enough, I teach quite a few of the football players. I constantly encourage them and show my support, but this time was going to be a little different.

As we approached the week of the game, the Lord began to deal with my heart about this game. He let me know that I needed to sit on the Parkland side on Friday night. Since I didn’t understand, I asked God “why”. It didn’t seem like a big deal to me. He then let me know that although Carver will always have a special place in my heart, I’m no longer in that place. I’m a Mustang and have been for the past 4 years.

Then the lesson came. God revealed to me that because I’d been so busy holding on to a place that was no longer producing fruit in my life that I couldn’t open my hands up to receive what He really had for me in this new place. How many times do we do this in our lives? We are so attached to our past that we refuse to let it go and we shut the door to the new blessings that God is trying to put in our hands. God is trying to put something new in our hands, but our hands are occupied because we won’t release what was.

Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the past. Not because it was so bad, but often times because we’ve had great success in the past. There were great accomplishments and accolades where we use to be. We helped a lot of people and produced great fruit. However, that season has ended and now we are in a new place where God desires to do a new thing. 

So even though my Mustangs lost that Friday night, I won. I learned a valuable lesson and my boys were excited to know that I was behind them cheering them on. So as you go through out this next week, remember that your past may have been great, but it can’t touch your future with a 10 foot pole!