It’s easy to get caught up in the what-if scenario or to play the woulda, coulda, shoulda game. If you’re like me, you could spend al day beating yourself up for dumb things you’ve said or done in the past that you wish you could go back and erase . . . or do over.

You probably could very easily spend all your time in the past where you messed up, but that wouldn’t be living. The reality is that you can’t ever go back, so dwelling on what you can’t change is futile and pointless.

But God can step into the moment you messed up and redeem it. God can go back to the place you were wounded as well as healing you from it in the present. Remember that God didn’t choose the wise and the strong and the put-together, but He chose the broken and the weak and the can’t-ever-get-it-together people to shame those who think they’re self-sufficient and have their lives totally together. He chose you and me.

The fact that God chose you means that your past now serves a purpose rather than just shame. Your mistakes and your sins are the very things God was able to work for good. Those moments and those actions that you swore you’d never tell anyone about can now be the first line of your testimony of how God took you at your worst and is transforming you into something that looks a whole lot like Jesus.

That’s the good news of the gospel. The big windshield of your future is where you’re headed for sanctification and holiness and heaven. The small rear view mirror is what shaped you into who you are and what God has delivered you from and what you can use to help others who are where you once were.