A New Day

A New Day

           

            Regrets.  We all have them, don’t we?  Missed opportunities, lost time, moments when we wish we had chosen differently.  Regret is a very powerful emotion that will latch onto us and influence our lives, our relationships, and our productivity if we allow it to.  It’s a leech.  And yet, it’s still a burden from our pasts that we tow along behind us everywhere we go.

            Another aspect of our pasts that we all have a tendency to cling to is our memories.  The good ones, I mean.  The mental snap-shots of laughter and good times with friends and family- the “good ole days.”  These too stick with us wherever we go.

            My birthday is tomorrow, and this morning, as I was lying in bed, I began to reflect upon my life.  My childhood, my teenage years, my schooldays, even the past year, the past few months, and the past weeks.  And my reflections were plagued with a tumult of happy memories and painful regrets of lost opportunities.  The memories far outnumbered the regrets, but somehow, my attention was drawn to the cracked portions of my past instead.  Isn’t that always how it is?

            Regret is a part of life.  We all make mistakes because we’re imperfect human beings.  Therefore, we’re bound to stumble and leave behind craters as reminders of where we’ve fallen.  Regrets are inevitable.  But regrets are also persistent, no matter how many times you dismiss them from your thoughts when they arise.  You can repent to the Lord and receive forgiveness for your mistakes, but those regrets can still continue to nag and haunt you with feelings of shame and guilt.  “Why didn’t I…?” or “Why did I…?” we all ask ourselves at some time.  “Why didn’t I spend more time with her while I still had the chance?”  “Why didn’t I tell him I was sorry before it was too late?”  “Why didn’t I have the courage to step out of my comfort zone when the Lord asked me to?”  “Why didn’t I tell her about Jesus?  I had so many opportunities.”  “Why didn’t I listen?”  “Why did I choose that path?”  We all have our own set of questions to deal with, questions that we ask but can never answer.

            When I ask myself these, I often find they lead me to another question: “Why can’t I just go back and do it differently?”  But life isn’t a Microsoft word document you can delete portions from; it’s a book written with pen and ink that can only be written once. 

            Regrets are detrimental and are one of the Enemy’s greatest universal tools for all of us.  But sometimes danger lurks in the unexpected as well.  We love to remember good times, don’t we?  Memories put a smile on our face, make us laugh, make us think of loved ones.  I’m a big supporter of holding onto memories and times past.  I have songs about holding onto memories: Every Moment by Joy Williams and Souvenirs by Switchfoot.  But even happy memories can be an obstacle in our lives.  Perhaps even more often than my regrets, my memories are a stumbling block for me.  I get tripped up here a lot.

            Life gets more complicated as we get older.  And we do get older; it happens to the best of us.  As children, we didn’t worry about finances: our conception of money was the amount of one-dollar bills in our piggybanks.  We didn’t worry so much about what other people thought of us.  We didn’t have the pressures and drama associated with relationships and our world’s “dating game.”  We didn’t have a family to provide and care for: that was our parents’ responsibility.  Sometimes I miss those days.  I miss the fun times I used to have with my sisters when we were all younger and used to have time to sit out on the front porch on summer afternoons and laugh and take crazy pictures together.  I miss rough-housing with my dad in the bed on lazy Sunday afternoons after church.  I miss playing Polly Pockets with my mom in the village we had built behind our family room couch.  I miss receiving letters in the mail from my best friend before text messaging was available to us.  I miss the days when I would draw on our driveway with sidewalk chalk as I waited for my dad to get home from work and those evenings after dinner when we would run out to meet the ice-cream man in his truck. 

            It’s very easy for me to get caught up in yesterdays… even more recent yesterdays like our stay on the Amish farm only a few weeks ago.  It’s easy for many of us to.  But as wonderful as memories are and as important as they are for us to hold onto, they can often cause a root of discontentment to grow within us.  It’s great to remember good times, but when we begin longing to return to the “good ole days” is when memories become detrimental to the task the Lord has place before us right now.

            Both regrets and memories are part of our pasts, and both can be hindrances to our here and now and to our future.  Both can hold us back from receiving all that the Lord has in store for us; both can keep us bound to our pasts.  They’re very strong ties.  Too strong for any of us to break on our own. 

Regrets can leave us broken-hearted, discouraged, and burdened, but that is not the will of God for our lives to be laden by the former things.  And memories can breed in us discontentment and distract us from what the Lord wants to do in our lives in this season.  But today is a new day.  The morning has dawned afresh, and we can embrace the hope of beginning again.  The Lord had plans for our future if we’ll only let go of the things of our past and allow Him to move and use us in this present moment.  Where the Lord has placed you is no accident and the people and situations in your life are no coincidences.  Like Esther, you have a divine calling for this time and season; you have been placed where you are “for such a time as this.” (Est 4:14)   

This is a milestone birthday for me, and I encourage you to make it a milestone day in your life as well as you release your regrets and discontentment and begin to walk in the freedom the Lord offers you.  That doesn’t mean you won’t ever struggle with regret and discontentment again when you think of your past- you’ll probably have to relinquish your hold of these things to God all over again tomorrow morning.  It’s a process, but allow Him to teach you from your past mistakes instead of allowing your past mistakes to control your life.  I’m learning it’s time to let my mistakes go, so I’m going to begin this new stage in my life by releasing the regrets of my past that I’ve been holding onto and by being grateful for the memories I have but not allowing them to breed a root of discontentment in my life.  No longer will I yearn for the “good ole days” and for the lost opportunities in my past, but today is a new day to begin again.  To look forward, to move ahead expectantly, and to walk in the hope of the future and the plans the Lord has for me.  Join me in making tomorrow a milestone to remember.

 

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18&19

 

*Looking for some songs about moving forward?  Check out two of my favorites: Brand New Day by Fireflight (I prefer the acoustic version) and Feels Like Today by Rascal Flatts.

 

*Also very soon, I’m going to begin a new little series of posts here on Heart-chords.  Right now, I feel the Lord leading me to share with you all a study of the life of Judas Iscariot and the lessons we can all learn from him.  So excited to start sharing with you some of the little in-depth details of this man’s life and the truths it holds for our lives today!  The Lord is opening my eyes to recognize parallels between us and this unlikely Biblical character, and hopefully, I can begin posting about those lessons soon in near upcoming weeks.  Definitely something we can start looking forward to!

 

Photo courtesy: www.123rf.com

 

 ~We’ve all heard of the phrase “pulling on her/ his heartstrings,” but heart-chords?  I was struggling to decide what to name my blog.  I wanted it to be a name that was both creative and meaningful.  As I pondered, my gaze fell upon my acoustic guitar where it stands in my bedroom, and the Lord reminded me that our hearts- our lives- are instruments.  They are constantly in song, but what melody our heart plays is each of our own decisions.  They can play a melody for praise or for entertainment.  A musician selects his songs according to his audience.  So do we.  Whether our audience is the world or the Lord, our song will be different.  This blog is designed to first, increase my awareness in finding God and His guidance in my every day and second, to share the music lessons He teaches me in tuning my heart to learn the chords of praise He longs to play on my heart-instrument.  Music is a powerful tool.  Use it for His glory.  “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:3