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I received an email from um a reader who has sent me some really interesting things from time to time and I appreciate his thoughts. I know he's a sincere dude. And so I want to take a quick minute and just share some thoughts in response to his email. And I think for this one, the video is better than writing it out. So in, in essence, what he asks is, is repentance, uh a blank slate. Is it a Mulligan? Can, is it a redo or what he correctly points out that many of the choices that we make, they, they permanently bracket the space of, of possibilities for our future. Now, I do need to say that you'd be surprised at what God can do. I, you wouldn't believe me if I told you what he could do, but you'll see those very things before your eyes soon enough in the world as we march into the fulfillment of his promises. Anyway, um that being said, it's, it's very important to stress this point that there are many decisions that will absolutely constrain the rest of your life, uh especially when it comes to parents because I think in general, more than in general, almost without exception. Parents are doing a horrendous job at effectively teaching their Children uh about decisions that can't be redone decisions that absolutely will constrain the rest of your life usually for evil. So usually it absolutely restricts the best that could be had. Um whether this be in effect or timing, you know, decisions that are tied to specific times that they need to be made or whatever. Uh And these are things that can't be undone. In fact, if you were de designing the ideal life, what you would find is that it consists of a chain of exceptional decisions, an unbroken chain. In fact that the relative difference between doing things exact exactly uh in the best way that they can be done at exactly the right time , it compounds at such a radical rate that uh I mean, I just don't think that that people, it would blow their minds. And um as we progress into the times we're in, what is going to happen is that the value of things that were taken for granted until now, it it's just the bottom, the floor is gonna drop out and life life as we know it will be revealed for, for the exceptional thing that it is and so only exceptional people will still have it. And I am intentionally blurring a whole lot of details out of this. But hopefully you get the point and it's on the shoulders of the parents to ensure that their Children, their young Children are shepherded to that and through all the challenges that are upon us and the normal path just is not enough. Ok. So that's my getting that out of the way. So I've done my, my duty with that. So quote from the email, as I consider the changes I need to make, it can feel like uh living up to my full potential would require me to remake some decisions in the past. OK. This is a very, uh like I said, it's a sincere guy. This is a very sincere point to make and it shows that he's getting it. That's what that shows. Um So here's some quick ideas. What you're imagining is your full potential is not actually your full potential. What it would be is your full potential. If you could go back in time and possess the body of your younger self, with your full knowledge of everything you understand right now. Now there is a reason that when we come to earth, we don't remember anything. Um So the only reason you have that perspective is because you live the precise life, you have lived to this point. And I, I wouldn't want the job to have to sit there and parse out exactly what taught you exactly what idea, feeling, sense of value, whatever. Um So that's sort of a dangerous game to go back and say, well, I could have cut out all these other things and then I could have the good without the bad for who I am today. Good luck with that. I wouldn't want that job. That's, that's not a job description I would apply for. So let's go through a few examples just to sort of have a, a scriptural uh illustration, a collection, a body of ideas from, from uh on this topic from the scriptures. So we've got King David, let's start with him. So he murdered someone. And um apart from that, he had an exemplary life, uh the Lord commended him for having a heart like him, except in that whole uh Uriah thing. So what's interesting is that David's character did not change after he, his, how should I say this? The trajectory of his life absolutely changed because he killed Uriah in one way, but it didn't change in another way. He was still David and, and everything that was good about him, uh that could be separated from, that was still good about him and he still continued to do everything he could to live as the Lord would, even though he made this one enormous mistake. This is one mistake. It's an enormous mistake, but it's one thing. So on the one hand, did that have absolute uh impact on the rest of his life, it did. There's some interesting scriptures about how uh part of the penalty of this or the effect of this was that all the problems he had with his kids, it says came from this um that was part of the effects of, of that choice. So, I mean, that's a really big deal . And you think of all the grief that he had um and the, the, the emotional pain and also the physical issues and also, I mean, more importantly, the suffering of everyone in his kingdom because of that choice and it was one choice, but he still had a very full life and he did an awful lot of good. In fact, you could, probably wouldn't be too much of a stretch to, to quantify his life is richer and more abundant than anyone else in his kingdom. If that's not true, it's probably pretty dang close to true. Uh I think it is true by a long shot for various reasons. But here's the point. Um will a person who makes a permanent mistake? That's what we're gonna call it. Um Ever have the life of a person who does not? The answer is no, that's sort of what makes it a permanent mistake. Will God forgive you? Yes. Does that magically warp the threads of his law? No. So his forgiveness in terms of giving you a blank slate is not a redo for your life. So that's only the case when it's a minor issue. So whether it's a big deal or not, has nothing to do with God changing something for you. It's just whatever it is, whatever you chose to drop the ball on. So, um, a person who makes a permanent mistake is never going to have the life of a person who does not. But, but they can find greater joy and do more good than they ever would have any other way. So that's kind of, it's kind of an intense idea. Ok. So David. David did what he did and I'm sure he regretted it for the rest of his life in the sense that he would definitely go back and act differently knowing what he knew after that. But he did not regret the things he learned through it. So he wouldn't have made the same decision, but he f he extracted all the value he could from it. And that's a good thing. And if you do that, no matter what mistakes you've made, God will use those things to propel you to a state that lies far beyond wherever you were. And that's very important. You see one thing uh I'm gonna struggle here to make this clear, but you think you're on some trajectory and then you fall. The thing is, is that sins are decisions, but they're not, they're not actually deviation from character, they're who you really are, right? Because if you were really that person with that trajectory, you wouldn't have done it. See what I mean? So this was actually an illusion. This situation was a blessing from God not in your choice because you shouldn't have cho chosen that way for whether it's something you did or didn't do. But that was how he showed you that you weren't this. And this was a way of showing you what you lacked to actually become closer to what you thought you were. It's a sin is a differentiation you're showing or, or we can put it that way, you're showing that you are not the person that you thought you were. OK. So um and, and that you can't reveal what lacks without also revealing how to become. That's a very important idea. You, you can't do either one of those things without doing the other. So um that, that's not to say you have to sin to grow. That's not at all what I'm saying. You have to be criticized though. You have to be instructed, you have to be rebuked. And so uh you either find and accept those instructions um before you make choices or you um reject or ignore them and then choose wrong and now you've sinned. So, um yeah, I guess that's it. So you, you can still have a much better life than you ever did because this was an illusion. You can have a much better life and become a much better person than you currently are. So uh let me put that cleaner, you can still have a much better life than you currently have by becoming a much better person than you currently are. And that's the point. So don't get hung up on the illusion of what you thought you were or what you could have, could be if you could go back in time and possess your earlier self, retaining all your, your current knowledge. Um Of course, you would make different decisions. Anyone who says I wouldn't do anything differently is either an idiot or a liar. They might be both, but they're at least one because if you wouldn't do anything differently, you haven't learned anything. You haven't become more like Jesus because Jesus would absolutely live your life differently. Right. Because he knows so much more than we do so much better. So, um, now, now you can say I wouldn't make the choices any differently because if I were in the same place knowing the same things, it's exactly what I would have done because I was always doing my best. Right . That's the life of a repentant person that's walking in the path of God. And they say, well, I absolutely wouldn't do that again. But it's because God has taught me more than I knew back then. And of course, this situation is very different because someone's turned away from what they knew, but there's still commonalities because like I said, you weren't who you think you were. That's the issue. Um, and you needed something to help you become that. So, um, anyway, another example is abigail, uh, in the scripture. She married an idiot, but she ended up with David. Now, Abigail never ever would have uh had access to or chosen King David if she hadn't first married the idiot. And so that whole thing changed her value structure gave her opportunities to grow as a person and how she reacted to that. And she was still an incredibly faithful wife and she did everything she could to be the best wife she could to her idiot husband and then God killed him so that, you know, good for her. So, um yeah, so could she have learned what she did through her idiot husband? Could she have learned the same things by marrying someone like David? No, no, because one, it's a different situation. You have different trials, different, different circumstances. But also uh she would absolutely not have appreciated being married to someone like David. Even if she had the opportunity to marry someone like David, there's only one David, she wouldn't have valued it. You have to go through hell to appreciate heaven. Now , ruth uh it's a similar story. We don't have to go through the details. It's, it's a similar story. All right. Now, here we have a specific example of this general principle I was saying before, um if you wanna talk about decisions that will absolutely dictate the quality of your life more so if you're a woman than a man, um will a person who marries a doofus ever have the life of a person who is prepared for and chooses an ideal spouse. No, absolutely not. Will, will a woman in particular who, who, uh, marries a doofus instead of becoming prepared for and choosing an ideal husband in her youth. Uh , will she ever have the same kind of life? No way? Nope. But, but they can find greater joy and do more good if they start wherever they are now and do the best. They, they know for the rest of their lives they'll find greater joy and do more good than they ever would have any other way. So it's, it , I don't know, it seems kind of like a paradox, but it's actually, it's pretty straightforward. So you can have a much better life than you currently have by becoming a much better person than you currently are no matter where you are right now and looking back on the past and saying, well, what would have happened if this, that or the other? I think it's a good question. Not something to obsess about, but it is a rich vein for God to teach you things mostly correcting your misunderstanding about yourself and other people through the lens of the past because things aren't the way you think they are , they weren't the way that you think they were and they're not the way that you think they're going to be, they're not going to be the way you think they're going to be OK. So it's good to accurately condemn your prior self for past mistakes. It's not good to pretend that your past self could have come to know what you now know in any other way than you did. Maybe that's possible, but I doubt it. And I don't know how you would know that unless God told you so you can absolutely, just to be clear, you can absolutely learn everything God has to teach you without ever sinning Jesus is the evidence of this, ok? For the rest of us is theoretical because we've at least blown it once. But the point is no matter where we are when we wake up to the fact that we've, we've not done our best. The point is whatever path is best for us starts right where we're standing. And so don't get discouraged by what came before when you're thinking in terms of the best that lies ahead. Don't think that God is limited in any way in the good He can do for you. And here's maybe the most important part. Don't put him in a tiny little box where you think all the good that He can give you has to come in the way that you think. And that's like, you know, if abigail was sitting around mourning the fact that she married this idiot, she never would have become the woman she needed to be to do for him, what she did in protecting him from David killing him for being such an idiot. And she never could have ended up with David , which, from all accounts, I guess, was a pretty happy deal for her. Um, so any way you slice it, the point is don't constrain God, just trust him if he says, follow me and I will lead you to the best that you could possibly have, don't think. Oh, because I made some mistake. Uh, God's not good enough to turn that into something good. Not, you know, literally your choice, but whatever lies ahead. I mean, if someone can raise somebody from the dead, I wouldn't think that whatever mistake you made is actually going to limit him in any way in the long term good that he does for you. And so looking on to past possibilities, that's um it's really foolish. I mean, what do you know? Right. So just look at him, don't look at your past, just look at him, look at him, run as fast as you can towards where you see him and rejoice in every little thing you have around you right now because if you did that , you would have zero doubts that what is around you right now is, is overflowing joy. It's overflowing joy and it doesn't matter how silly it seems or how lacking it seems. If you look at him in all things and you see how he is, you have to believe him when he says I have oriented your life for the greatest possible joy for you. Based precisely on how you are. It's a gift and it's the most personalized thing that can be. And so just focus on him, look around you and believe him and all you need to do is do whatever you need to do to figure out what he would do in your place and then do it, do what he would do, think like he would think, feel like he would feel and I guarantee you that you will run out of places to put the joy because that's how he is. And he is not limited by your choices in the past, in fulfilling how he is.