Lenten Blogging: Day Eight
Today's Question: "You have the choice to erase one incident from your past, as though it never happened. What would would erase and why?"
I am a man with a thousand regrets. I have done things that are hurtful, foolish, and inconsiderate. I have made decisions that blew up in my face, and I've lost opportunities because of choices that I made. If I had the chance to erase even one of them from my past I would choose not to.
I may be looking at this question a little deeper than I should, but everything is connected in some sort of way. And I think all my bad moments are connected with the good. Indeed, it's the bad moments that have shaped me most. Erase the bad and the present me (as woeful as I am) would be a shell of myself. Furthermore, erasing one moment my void my present of something that I would never part with. So I wouldn't risk erasing one single incident.
I have experienced something far better than erasing, and that is forgiveness, reconciliation, and repentance. It is far more fulfilling to seek forgiveness from someone you have wronged than it is to make like it never happened. Because in doing so both you, and the other, are growing more fully into the nature of God.
The same goes for bad decisions. Better to repent, and change your mind and action about something than to eliminate it. For without the experience of failing one wouldn't experience the joys of success. And success taste much sweeter when when seasoned with many failures, Just ask Thomas Edison... or LeBron James.
I believe it was Augustine who said, "Our trials come to prove us and to improve us." Do not erase them, because every experience makes you who are you today. Indeed, knowing that is true we can be more thoughtful of the decisions we will make today knowing they are preparing us for tomorrow.
Tomorrow's Thought: "Take a quote from your favorite movie - there's the title of your post. Now, write!"