Time wasted and regrets

     There are times when I sit back and review my day/month/year and take an assessment of what has been accomplished with the time God has given me here on earth.  Like some of you, there are dismal days and some regrets.  The truth is if you don't have regrets you haven't risked.  Life is about risk and the time you have here on earth.  If you are a Christian then the element of time and regret is amplified.  The order of words could easily be reversed to say "regrets and wasted time."  We don't usually acknowledge our wasted time until we have the regrets knocking us over the head with a baseball bat!  At least it's true for me.  Regrets are fueled by what I like to call my three friends:  "woulda, coulda and shoulda."  These three renegades have wreaked havoc in my life time and time again.  However, in fairness, I should admit that it was I who gave them the room to do just that.  Without my cooperation they wouldn't have any power at all.  They want me to view my failures and wasted time as a defining moment/event of who I am.  That's not true.
     Sometimes the regrets are thrust upon us in the heat of a moment.  We are reminded by someone we have allowed to speak into our life of the failure that has taken place somewhere in our past.  It doesn't matter that there is nothing anyone can do about the past.  The past has all the power we give it.  It's like a fire in that the fire can only burn when it has oxygen.  Take away the oxygen and the fire goes out.  I once heard the story of a boy asking his grandfather about life and the struggles there are in life.  His grandfather in turn told the boy there was an internal fight in all of us between two wolves.  One wanted to do good to us and the other wanted to do evil to us.  The boy asked him which wolf was winning in his life.  The grandfather told him that the wolf who was winning was the one he fed the most.  Time wasted and regrets.  Maybe they are one and the same?  Maybe they would be defeated if we took the time to let them go.
     That's what Easter and other Christian holidays are about.  The past is done.  The day has come upon us.  We are given today only with no promise of what that day will hold.  We are reminded that the choices we face will be ours alone.  No one can make the choices for us.  We can choose which wolf to feed.  For the most part people want to choose that which is good and long lasting.  We call it a legacy.  The problem with passing on a legacy is that the rest of the story comes along for company.  Then when the legacy is called upon to teach a lesson time wasted and regret along with my three friends "woulda, coulda and shoulda" are right there waiting to drag us back into our past.  Once we take our eyes off today and this moment, we forget that we don't have to go back.  So part of the key here is to keep our eyes stayed on that which supersedes the past...Jesus.  If we are focused on the grace and love of Jesus, then the past has no power over us.  Time wasted and regrets are relegated to those who wish to continue living there. 
     If you find yourself surrounded by wolves intending on consuming you, move.  Leave.  Check out with no forwarding address.  Stop!  Anything but our eyes on Jesus is time wasted and will only produce regrets.  It's your choice.  I can only choose for this moment of this day.  I may not get but a few moments or even a few days.  Making the most of those moments is essential.