Too often past narratives control the present.  Those who are living the past in the present tense cannnot experience life in superabundance as spoken of by Jesus.  For too many people negative experiences of the past color the present.  The souls of such persons are stained by experiences that have distorted life.  They have believed the lie that they cannot ever rise above the past.  They have accepted the terrible fiction that they will never have lives that are filled with love, laughter, prosperity, and Grace.