Slow Mo: Overcoming a Bad Decision – Tuesday
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 6
"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven… A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away." (NLT)
Yesterday I mentioned my “treasures” in my memory box. Ecclesiastes 3 covers the two-fold nature of most things in life — there’s a time for one thing, but also time for essentially the opposite. To say there were a bunch of things in that box to “throw away,” as prescribed by today’s verse, would be a bit of an understatement.
This box is no more than 1 foot tall by 1.5 feet wide, with 9 small drawers, yet it was holding over a hundred things easily (I tend to… collect things…). One drawer had this small paper pouch, and inside were two molar teeth. The weird thing is there was also a tooth or two in 5 other boxes just loose. I’d say all those may have been worth throwing away…. over 25 years ago.
Speaking of things from 25 years ago, I also found a strip of caps for a cap gun. If you’re unfamiliar with these, they’re essentially little circles filled with gunpowder and capped with a little paper cover. Generally, I’m very pragmatic, planned, and practical. I guess something about this blast (pun intended) from the past erased all semblance of those things, though, because the next thing I knew, I had a hammer in my hand and tinnitus in my ears from the deafening sound of the three caps I had “detonated” against my garage floor.
Have you ever had the past sneak up on you in a way that disrupted current things? Sometimes, it can be a bittersweet memory brought back to the forefront of your mind by an experience. Other times, fragments of previous seasons can suddenly present themselves as a negative “blast from the past,” detonating on your heart and mind. Unresolved regret, guilt, and decisions can sometimes rear their ugly heads when we are least ready. The good news is that God’s grace covers the past and the future. He knows the regret you live with, and He wants to call you into the joy, peace, and reconciliation that a life with Him brings. Are you ready to step into real grace and leave the past where it belongs?
Tuesday’s Reflection
What are you treasuring? Are these life-giving things, or have you accidentally started to “treasure” the things bringing chaos to your life? Doing that in the pursuit of comfort is an easy trap to fall into. Pray today that God reveals what you’re holding on to that may be time to throw away.
