You don't have to live with regret

Tom Crenshaw May 11, 2024

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"In life we do things. Some we wish we had never done, some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads, but they all make us who we are. And in the end, those experiences shape every detail about us. If we were to reverse any of them, we wouldn't be at the exact place that we are today. So just live. Make mistakes and have wonderful times but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is that you are going."― "The Last Words,"- Source Unknown

I sent this quote to a friend of mine, and the next day I received the following response.: "I am so touched by this e-mail. I'm going through some cut to the heart experiences (that) I am having with my slow growth! I say this this with tears because the timing is so perfect. I feel God's grace through this e-mail. My heart is so heavy about who I am and how I am doing and how long it's taking for me to be better in my response when frustrated with people! From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your Shepherd's heart."

It didn't take much time to copy this quote and send it to this friend. In receiving the person's response, I was again reminded of how little effort it takes to make a difference in a person's life. I just read a quote, thought of a person who might appreciate it, copied and pasted it, and with one click sent it through cyberspace, and God used it to encourage its recipient.

Now the only reason I sent it to this person was because it first spoke to me, and perhaps it will speak to you, just as it also did to a group of men in an addiction ministry we host at our church.

We all have made poor choices, and wrong decisions in our lives, and those choices and decisions can birth a pain of regret that will hound us for the rest of our lives.

But as I reminded those men at our addiction meeting, God can and will use even our poor choices and wrong decisions to bring us to the place where we are, a place where we now have the chance for recovery, and a new life with Jesus in control of their lives.

God has a plan and purpose for all of our lives, and He is able to use even the mistakes we make to bring His plan and purpose to fulfillment.

The Apostle Paul writes: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

Those men at that meeting were present because of the poor choices and decisions they had made in their past. But those decisions and choices had now brought them to the place where they could discover the transforming power of Jesus to break the chains of their addiction.

So, as the unknown writer of the "Last Words" has said, "Just live. Make mistakes and have wonderful times but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is that you are going."

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Tom Crenshaw serves as Connections Pastor of the New Monmouth Baptist Church (non denominational) where he previously served as a three year interim.He has been married to Jean for almost 50 years, and they have four children, all of whom are teachers.Tom loves perennial gardening, umpiring high school baseball, coaching baseball and football, fishing for small mouth bass, rooting for his favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, and listening to ‘real’ country music, the classic kind. Learn More »

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