Don’t go back there!

Posted by dlbadmin on Oct 22, 2015

“Don’t go back there!”

I’d scream those words at the TV screen during a pivotal scene in one of those scary movies of the eighties. My favorite back in the day was “Halloween,” starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

Today, those movies just make me laugh with their outdated special effects and movie sets. But back then, my heart thumped. The soon-to-be victim would be running away from the crazed monster guy then, for some reason, she’d go right back to the same house or barn or old shack where all the mayhem started, thinking she’d find refuge. How dumb was that? “Don’t go back there!” I’d yell. Yet, there she went. She’d lean against the wall, huffing in relief and then… Well, crazed monster guy came busting through the door or the wall and that was end-of-story for her. “I told you!” I’d scream at the television.

Of course, I would never do something so stupid. You likely think that too, especially when observing someone else’s choices. Yet we’ve all gone back to places we shouldn’t, be it literally or just in our minds. We tend to forget the danger or the bitter taste of the past and glorify it. It wasn’t perfect, but at least back then I…

Sometimes we bog ourselves down with regret because of wrong professional decisions, and some personal missteps, too. As we grow, we realize our mistakes and wish we could change what we said or did or prioritized yesterday. But the fact is that we can’t…

Growth is about building on the past—even the mistakes and the regrets—not trying to repeat it.

The next time you begin to over-analyze that business decision you made last year that turned out badly, or when you’re wishing you “knew then what you know now,” remember that our character is strengthened, not by doing everything right and having a perfect life, but by learning from life’s trials and from what we’ve done wrong.

Are you pressing ahead, planning for an awesome future and the best to come in your life? Or are you wasting time looking back, hoping to recreate the past and wondering what might have been?

*This entry is a revised excerpt from my women’s devotional “40 Days of Faith.”

–Post updated April 11, 2017

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