Issue 076
“If only I had taken that course”; “If only I’d applied for
that job”; “If only I’d listened at school”; “If only I’d
followed up that lead”; “If only……..”
Our working lives present us with choices, opportunities
and decisions. Sometimes it is hard to know whether
you made the right choice or are even in the right line
of work. The result for you can be a sense that you are
living in the world of ‘might have beens’, on a diet of
regret. This is not a healthy way to live. I would
suggest that we need to think carefully about the way
we view the past.
Paul tells us to forget what is behind. He’s not
advocating reckless amnesia but a freedom from past
paralyses. So you can say things like “I made a mistake
but it’s forgiven”, or “I made that choice the best way I
could then”, or perhaps even, and this is very important,
“I could have done that and been successful at it but I
chose not to” Sometimes knowing that you could have
done something is enough; it’s not a cop-out but a
healthy view of the past – a healthy way of forgetting
what is behind and recognising that in one life you can’t
do everything.
Perhaps you could have been a footballer, musician,
physiotherapist, builder or an international banker;
perhaps you could have been great at something else.
By the grace of God you are what you are – regret will
only diminish who you are now.
We ought to talk about how to view the present and
the future, which we will, but we haven’t got time at the
moment.
Philippians 4:12-16
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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