Some of us are afraid of our mistakes. It’s harder to explain to someone how the best things in life are traceable to our failures, so we instead try to deny the failure all together. Or worse yet, we try to justify the failure.
“I’m so grateful for my addictions because my life brought me here to where I am now and I wouldn’t want to change a thing!”
This is a broken way of thinking! Imagine a man who’s overdose hospitalized him. In the hospital he met a pastor who lead him to salvation. Over the course of the next few years he walked in faith and lead many others to salvation. Would it be right to say, “His drug use wasn’t a mistake because it brought him here.”? No, that’s incredibly shallow minded. It discounts all that God is!
Let me give you another example: A sixteen year old girl gives birth to a child. Are you allowed to talk about the sin committed? The child is a blessing right and you wouldn’t want to minimize that, right?
God is a God of forgiveness and a God that longs to restore us. Yet if I am unwilling to admit a mistake, then how can I ever learn of his grace and forgiveness? How can I teach my children those things if I don’t ever acknowledge before them that I have failed? That girl who gives birth to that child needs to be able to say, “Yes, your birth was caused by my sin, my mistake, but God is a gracious God and his mercy unending. I did something wrong, but when I went to him in sorrow and apologized, he forgave me! Which is why I can love you so much more deeply and forgive you, because I am loved and forgiven!”
We’re so afraid to acknowledge sin because we might hurt someone’s feelings or make them feel less loved, but it’s not until we are willing to admit sin that we can be forgiven for it and learn and taste the true depth of love and grace!
That man who overdosed can say, “I regret that life! If I could go back and stop myself, I would. By the grace of God he pulled me from it. By his mercy I lived. Because of his forgiveness, that life does not rule me and I am restored. By his power, he took what was broken and made it mighty! Now I can speak to others who walk that same path.”
Don’t be afraid to look at the past and wish it was different. You are who you are in Christ in spite of what you’ve done, not because of it. You are who you are in Christ because of what he’s done in spite what you’ve done.
I am fallen. I look back on my failures and wish I had not made them. I thank you, Father, that my sin only amplifies your goodness. I ask that you let the world see my brokenness so that they may in turn see your forgiveness and grace!
“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word!” Isaiah 66:2