Looking Back and Going Forward

As March approaches each year, I often find myself looking back to a regrettable event that happened in my life one past March. It was a time when I made a choice that changed my life forever. It is only by God’s mercy and my family’s great love and sacrifice that I am where I am today.

This year, I am amazed to find that eighteen years have passed since that horrible March day. This seems to be the year that I gain more insight than ever before into that time in my life. I am still not proud of my choices back then, nor was everything that happened afterward a positive thing. I now see though, that I have so much to be thankful for. I am so glad that I did not get what I deserve. I am also thankful to God for raising me up again after my wrong choices, not just then, but since then as well.

I was recently in the Christmas choir at my church. As I walked from the green room to the stage with the rest of the choir, we passed a board with what seemed like a million buttons and blinking lights. The only thing I knew about that board was that if I touched it, the whole service would be a disaster because I would have no idea what I was doing. I had to leave it alone and trust that the people behind the scenes did know what they were doing.

It’s like that in life. Sometimes I have no idea what I am doing and yet sometimes I can’t leave it alone. Sometimes there is disaster. But God! But God picks me up again and works even the disaster for good in a way that is beyond my imagination.

Dear Father, as I think about growth this year, I think about disaster. And how you have helped me to so beautifully move beyond it. Help me to continue to leave the buttons and blinking lights alone, and trust you with the production of my life. In Jesus name, amen.

Throughout this day: Is there a time in your life when you fell and God picked you up? How can you learn and grow from that today?

Here is a resource about falling out of love with God and walking back from that: https://thelife.com/falling-out-of-love-with-god