No Do-Overs

I read a line in a newsletter today that went like this, "If I could push the rewind button......I probably would have done some things differently."

All of us would have, I'm sure....done some things differently. (paid more attention, done more of that, done less of the other, really listened, been more present, sensitive, thoughtful, willing, forgiving, etc. etc.). But fortunately, or unfortunately, there are no do-overs in life. There are second chances for sure, but no deletes.

And when I consider the text from Romans that is the basis for my sermon on Sunday, I'd say that is probably a good thing, that we cannot rewind and do it all over again. The general idea that the writer Paul puts forth is: suffering produces character. I'd be willing to bet that if most of us could do it all over, we would surely eliminate the worst of our suffering. If we could rewind our lives, we would likely bypass the parts that hurt. But in doing so, you see, we'd be deleting that which has the greatest effect on who we are!

All this leads inevitably to the conclusion that the point is not to avoid our mistakes and pain, but to learn from them.

If I had the remote control button of life in my own hands, I might not necessarily rewind and eliminate all the pain and suffering, but I'll confess that I would surely hold down the fast forward button to get it over with quickly!