Living in the Past, Present, and Future: Lessons from A Christmas Carol on Redemption

Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff

The following was published in the OnStage Blog Newsletter on Friday, December 13th, 2024. You can sign up for the newsletter here.

A Christmas Carol is probably the one IP that I don’t mind seeing reprised umpteen times on screen and stage (while I wouldn’t mind seeing more variations like a female lead, different time period settings, etc.) because, at its core, its redemption message is one we all need to revisit.

You are never too old to change.

This runs opposite to conventional wisdom. Often, we tell ourselves seniors (and some non-seniors) are set in their ways, and they are who they are, etc. But this is usually because they are stuck in pain, just like Ebenezer Scrooge was.

I usually watch the Muppet's Christmas Carol version every year, partly because I have a 10-year-old daughter but also because I genuinely do consider it the definitive Christmas Carol adaptation, and I have seen all of the film adaptations except Scrooged. One line in A Christmas Carol stuck out to me in this year’s viewing after Ebenezer woke up on Christmas morning:

“I will live in the past, present, and future.”

The full quote from the book reads: “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

I hadn’t paid much attention to this line before, but this time, the line stuck out like a neon billboard on a dark, windy road.

So often, we choose to live in only the past, present, or future, rarely two of the three, and never all three.

I am one of those people. I am stuck in the future. I’m always thinking about the next big thing. I love planning and anticipation.

I hate dwelling in the past.

I often tell myself, “Not even God can change the past,” so I focus on things I can influence.

But the real reason I focus on the future is because the past makes me sad. I’m the type of person who stews over my mistakes and rarely pats myself on the back for what I did right. So, I often bury my negative memories as much as possible and focus on the positive, which is often the future, because I never foresee myself making mistakes in the future.

But so many people I know have the opposite problem. They are stuck in the past; some for nostalgic purposes (everything in society was so much better 20 years ago!), but some because the past was so painful they couldn’t move on from it, even though they act as they have.

The secret is, as Ebenezer Scrooge discovered, to embrace the past, the future, and yes, the present for a full life.

You can’t change the past, but you can learn from it and use it as fuel to do better. You must embrace the present because the present becomes the past instantly, and fully embracing the present will create positive building blocks for the future.

The future has so much potential because there’s so much good to do with so much time, yet so little left to come.

That’s the inherent contradiction with the future. It’s unlimited but also very limited. Yes, there is a finish line for us all, but everything we touch on our journey to the finish line can impact lives to come for those still running far after we’re done. No matter where we are in life, there’s still time to redeem ourselves.

We learn from the past to improve ourselves in the present and to create an even richer life for ourselves and those around us in the future.

Redemption is a choice, but so is also staying exactly how you are.

Choose wisely, as Ebenezer Scrooge did.