Beyond Sunday (Hobart Campus) - No Regrets

...by Randy Parish

There are probably very few of us who don’t have regrets about bad choices we have made in our lives. We can’t let ourselves become paralyzed with indecision because we are afraid of making another bad choice. I learned a long time ago, you can’t change the past. It’s a part of our personal history that we lived through. Doug used the illustration of the Etch-A-Sketch. We can’t just take the past, turn it upside down, shake it and expect a clean slate. Even a well worn Etch-A-Sketch starts showing a faint image of the past. I think the key point is, did we learn from those choices and learn to make a better choice when faced with a similar situation or do we have the same regrets year after year? Paul gives us a valuable lesson in Philippians 3:13 when he says, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead”.

Moving into a new year is always a good time to reflect back on the past year and run a little newsreel in your head to review the year. If you had regrets, can you make sure you don’t have a repeat in the new year? Some people make resolutions that never make it past the first two weeks of January. Doug talked about goal setting and made a particular point that really stuck out for me and that was: we need to set our goals with a purpose. To me, that’s asking why are we setting the goal in the first place? What is the ultimate gain by setting that goal? What is the end result of the goal? If we can set a realistic, attainable goal it gives us something positive to strive for. After all, God made us for a purpose and that purpose carries significance that is beyond ourselves. Some of us either haven’t figured out what that purpose is or can’t admit that maybe we are already serving our purpose. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Turning the calendar over to a new year doesn’t erase the past or magically cure our ills or our regrets, but it is a chance to help our future and discover our significance.