When I was a kid we played football in the street. Every now and then, if we kicked-off horribly we would beg for a “do over.”

Honestly, there are moments I consider all of the many things I’ve messed up in my life (the list is endless), wishing I could somehow have a “do over.”

Alas, life’s not like that. There’s no “delete button” for when we say, think, or do something we regret.

But then, there’s the Cross – the representation of our “do over.”

Someone once wisely commented,

“Never be a prisoner of your past, it was just a lesson, not a life sentence.”

Through the prophet Isaiah, God said,

“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 wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Even Paul, the author of a full third of the New Testament, had a past he tried to forget – a wicked past – which is one reason he wrote,

“…dear brothers and sisters,…I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Put your regrets and shortcomings in the rearview mirror. Then – remove the rearview mirror by leaving it at the Cross – where everything becomes new.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Or, better nuanced in the Amplified Translation:

“If anyone is in Christ [ joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].”

Happy New Year, nw