This week on Geek Devotions, we are looking at a classic holiday story to see what a biblical perspective really looks like when we are faced with the things the Ghost of Christmas Past showed Ebenezer Scrooge. It’s easy to get stuck in where we’ve been, but when we look at the word of God, we find a much better way to process our history and move forward.

I want to clue you guys in on a little bit of a secret. Celeste and I, every year for Christmas, have a tradition. And that is to watch some version of A Christmas Carol. Now we’ve watched a lot of Christmas Carol over the years—the Patrick Stewart one, the Michael Caine one, even the Deadpool one. It’s really sunk in, and there are some things about it that I see that I’m like, “This is super encouraging,” and I want to share it with you guys today. This is part one of a series I like to call “The Gospel According to a Christmas Carol.”

The Warning of the Past

The basic summation of the story is simply this: You have a man named Ebenezer Scrooge who is a bitter and very selfish man. One Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former co-owner, Jacob Marley. Jacob is there to warn him because Jacob’s dead and he’s in a bad situation. His warning is: “You are in danger of having the same situation. I’m in chains, I’m bound up, and if you don’t change your ways, you will end up like me, only worse.”

This whole aspect of these ghosts visiting him is a fascinating storytelling device to give wisdom to Ebenezer Scrooge. However, I can’t help but think back about a particular individual in the scriptures. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus gives a parable about a rich man who dies and finds himself in Hades (Luke 16:19-31). He cries out to Father Abraham, “If you could just do me a favor, send back Lazarus to warn my family about what’s taking place so they don’t end up like me.”

What Abraham says is fascinating. He says, (paraphrasing) “If they’re not going to listen to the prophets, they’re not going to listen to somebody who comes back from the dead” (Luke 16:31). Truth of the matter is, we have already been warned. Your Bible is the word of God about everything to come and how to live our lives in an appropriate manner.

What Defines You?

The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Ebenezer back to being neglected in a boys’ home and later to the moment his bride calls off their wedding because he became too focused on money. Scrooge was heartbroken and alone, and it shaped who he became. The question for us is: What things of your life do you allow to define you? You have three choices.

1. Letting Bad Experiences Define You We can’t allow the bad things that happened to us to dictate who we are. Look at the “ghost” of Joseph in the Old Testament (Genesis 37-50). His life was hard—sold into slavery, put in bad situations, thrown in jail, and forgotten. He had every right to be bitter, yet he decided not to let those things define him. What happened to you that was wrong should not have happened, but those things don’t have to define your life.

2. Letting Your Mistakes Define You We also can’t let our own mistakes define us. Look at Peter. He was passionate, but he made a major mistake when he cursed people out and denied he even knew Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75). But Peter didn’t let that failure define him; he went on to lead the early church.

3. Letting Your Good Memories Define You This is one people miss: you can’t even let your good memories define you. Sometimes we get so caught up in “the good old days” that we can’t see what God is doing right now. We see this with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). They were so focused on how things “used to be” with Jesus that they didn’t realize He was walking right next to them! Instead, be like the Israelites who left memorial stones after crossing the Jordan (Joshua 4:1-9). Use the past as a reminder of God’s faithfulness, but don’t try to live there.

Defined by Christ Alone

If we aren’t defined by our trauma, our mistakes, or our “glory days,” what defines us? The answer is Christ alone. The Bible says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

God has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). He isn’t counting your past against you. You don’t have to be the “Scrooge” of your past. You are a new creation in Him.

Remember, you are loved, you are cared for, and your past does not have the final say. Stay devoted!