Moments for the Heart

As I look back on my life, I have wondered about the choices made. Most of my life decisions I have made myself, but some of them have been made for me. When I consider these things, I am tempted to think about opportunities I may have been passed up, asking myself where I would be if I had chosen left instead of right?

Even though I contemplate, I know I am precisely where I am supposed to be. All the choices I have made have led me to this point in time. All the paths I have traveled, and the pitfalls I have dove headfirst into, have all made me into the man I am today. And that is the person God is continuing to mold me into.

This not only applies to me. Everything you have experienced in your life has led you to today and the person you have become, and the person God is making you into.

Choices We Make

This all begins with choices. We make choices every day, whether we realize it or not. We choose what time to get out of bed, what brand of coffee to drink, and what we are going to wear. Leaving the house, we chose which route we are going to take, how fast to drive, and how close we park to the entrance.

At work, we chose what tasks we are going to prioritize, how much effort we put into that assignment, and what we eat for lunch. Once we complete our inbox, we chose how to get home, what to eat for dinner, and then what time we hit the hay.

Choices.

These decisions come to us day in and day out. Once we develop a pattern, we can go through life on autopilot, not realizing the ramifications of our choices. Yes, even normal life. You may think that what you have for lunch or what project you start off with matters little in the grand scheme of things, but it can.

What we eat can affect our health. The assignment we work on may not be what our bosses want us to prioritize. How we drive can matter because that 5MPH over the speed limit can put you somewhere where you wouldn’t have been if you had gone the speed limit. Our choices have consequences. Even the small ones. So, we make our choices and we deal with the consequences as they come.

Our routines can also lead us to feeling stuck. This can evolve into doubt and eventually regret, especially with the larger decisions we must make. The decisions we once had control over, we now look back on with questions.

Choices Made for Us

While we can choose Colombian or Guatemalan coffee for breakfast, there are some decisions that are beyond our control. Yeah, we may feel we have control over all areas of our life, but when it comes down to it, we are stuck with certain things. We have to make the best of the situation in the manner that suits the situation and our abilities.

For instance, I used to be a truck driver. When I arrived at the terminal, I was required to inspect my truck. Federal laws were in place to help protect me, those on the highway, and the company I worked for. Yes, I could have chosen not to follow that checklist, but what if there was a brake line leak? I would get down the highway, and when I tried to stop, I wouldn’t be able to. It could cause an accident, perhaps injure someone (or worse.) I would’ve lost my job, my license, and possibly a lawsuit to deal with. All because I went against a choice that was made for me.

Other decisions made for us are less dramatic. They often begin with a choice we make, but from there, choices are in someone else’s hands. We pick a car to drive, but we may be limited to a type of fuel or parts. We choose to go to school for a degree, but the courses we must take are spelled out in an outline. Or we can choose a path in life to follow and walk that road boldly, only to find it more difficult than we thought.  

But when the momentum of the choices made, begin to take on a life of their own, we can feel a loss of control. And when we make attempts to slow down, we are overcome by the inertia of the very thing we began rolling in the first place.

Opportunities Left Behind

Life is complex and we get so lost in going through the motions that we forget to live. Then we wake up one day and look back and wonder if we have made the right choices, or worse, we regret the choices we have already made. Regret can cause drastic actions when we realize that there is less life ahead than there is behind us.

Regrets of past opportunities we let pass can keep us from accomplishing what we currently have set before us. Life cannot be lived in the rear-view mirror. Looking back takes our eyes off the here and now. If we focus on what has been, we lose sight of what will be. By the time we realize it, new opportunities will have passed us by, causing further regret; it’s an endless cycle.

You may hate your job and don’t see any way out. After all, it’s what you have been doing for ten years.

You may be rethinking your educational path, but you have put so much money and energy into this course that you feel there is no turning back.

You may feel your life is stalled with no future ahead; sure that you have accomplished all you are going to.

Regret and self-doubt get you nowhere. They only destroy who you are now. However, there is a silver lining to it all. There is some good news.

Regrets are not Failures

There is one important thing to know when you are faced with regret as you survey your past; you have not failed. The truth is, you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Your job, your relationships, and your life are all part of a divine plan. Your responsibility is to find the joy in what has been given to you and to live that life to the fullest. No regrets, even when you are convinced that you messed up.

God has laid out a path for you. He has a plan for each of us, win, lose, or draw. We can take what we are given and utterly screw it up, but still be completely in His will. You see, God is not surprised by anything. He knows our choices before we even make them. Our mistakes are His greatest triumphs because when we fall short, we learn. (Some of us have learned a lot.)

There are two things we can do when we face failure. We can give up, throw in the towel, and sit in misery. Or we can learn from it and move on, stronger than before. Giving up should never be an option. It is an immature way to handle any situation. When we accept that life is going to have bumps, it becomes easier. The more we live, the more we learn to anticipate and prepare for the strikeouts of life.

Final Thoughts

Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” God gives us the courage to move on. Right from where we are at. When we learn to be content with where we are, then the clarity of our call will be realized. When we learn what the call on our life is, it will become our heart’s desire. When we learn to depend on his guidance toward our calling, there is nothing we cannot achieve.  

There is no need for regret. While you may not feel accomplished in your life, know that is a matter of perspective. Consider this: there will always be someone behind you that sees you more successful than they are. The only one who can give you the proper perspective is God. Once you can see yourself through His eyes and come to an understanding that God don’t make junk, then you can begin to see the events of yourself in a different light and live a life with no regrets.