The boy was not popular. He wasn’t good at games. He grew up on the playground, and wasn’t very good with his fists. Without glasses he was blind as a bat. He said when he was a kid, he was kind of a sissy. He would run from a fight. But one day, that would all change. He would become a man, and he would coin the phrase “The buck stops here.” Harry Truman became a great war-time President.

“Only those who can honestly connect with their past, successfully walk away from it. Those who run away, or are living a lie, are bound to it forever. God calls us to confess our sins and repent. It moves us forward.” – Tom Stoops from the sermon “The Buck Stops Here”.

2 Corinthians 5:17 reads – “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new is here!”

I can attest to the beauty of God’s grace, mercy and goodness.  I made a LOT of mistakes, went through a LOT of heartache, felt that I once had a calling on my life but I had messed up so much that the Lord could never use me now.  (At least those are the lies the devil whispered in my ear).. but 6 years ago, at 46 years old, I became a “new creation”.  I started seeking the Lord and renewed my mind day by day.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12: 1-2

I accepted my past, and then I left it there as I walked forward boldly into this new life. Into the one God had intended for me all along.  I often tell people the best way to describe this “new creature” experience that God gives is that my past is like a book I once read, but there are no longer any emotions connected to it.  I know the story, I learned from it, but it no longer has any hold on me.  I no longer feel pain or regret.  It’s no longer who I am, nor labels I will ever wear again.  But to get to this point?  I had to connect with my past, and then walk away.  No self-pity.  Owning my mistakes and the part I played in them.  Forgiving those who hurt me to the measure I want to be forgiven (which is totally!).  No longer becoming easily offended, and never looking back, only forward, constantly seeking God and His plans for my life.   You have to take your focus off your past, off your self, and put it on Jesus.  That’s where joy flows like a river and peace abounds.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity…. ”  Jeremiah 29: 12-14

My hope is that someone who reads this that is still bound by chains of past regrets, is encouraged.  God is no respecter of persons.  If he did it for me?  He’ll do it for you!  Yes, even you.  No matter how much you’ve done wrong?  It’s never too late for Him to make it right.