Field of Daisies

Irreversible or Invincible?

Have you done something irreversible? Have you made that *mistake* that can't be undone? The one that causes you pain every time you think of it? I often tell my kids there isn't much (at their age) they can do that is beyond repair. Broken things can be replaced. Knees can be bandaged. Even dents can be pounded out of the fender. But as we enter into adulthood, it seems the opportunities for those irreversible, unrepairable things fly at us at break-neck speed: like losing our virginity in a moment of passion; marrying that person we know isn't right for us; insisting we are okay to drive even though we've had one too many to drink; choosing abortion instead of life.... Even saying words in the heat of anger that can never be taken back--words that cut and sting and wound.

Those things cannot be undone--virginity cannot be re-instated (though it can be spiritually restored). Marriages can be annulled or divorce can be obtained, but that marriage is always there haunting your past. And abortion.... Well, though that wound can be healed, the scar is always raised upon the heart that experienced it. Even so, there is hope for our present and for our future. As Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost For His Highest:

For those of us who belong to God through Jesus Christ, we don't have to dwell on the irreversible. We don't have to live undefeated lives. We can live Invincibly!--the Invincible* life that is ours because of Him.

_____________________
*Invincible: Incapable of being overcome or defeated; unconquerable. (According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language - Fourth Edition)

**This "forgetting" is not denial. It is not even "not remembering". This "forgetting" is simply not allowing the memory of the past to define or hinder your present or your future. It is remembering with gratitude and humility those "irriversible" things that have been bathed in perfect mercy, grace, and forgiveness.