One of the saddest things a person can experience is to look back on a long life and feel an intense sense of regret. A person reflects on his or her life and is filled with remorse and sadness, thinking that so much of that life has been wasted or poorly lived.
One can reflect on all the mistakes, bad choices, and wasted opportunities that have taken place. It can be overwhelming when one realises life is now nearing its end, and there is little or no time to turn things around, set a new course, and make up for past failures.
The reality is this: we have one life to live, and one life only. Sure, we all make mistakes along the way, and wish that we could undo some things. But that cannot fully happen in this life. We are stuck with our past choices.
Fiction writers have sometimes sought to deal with this question. Some old episodes of the Twilight Zone deal with those who seek to travel to the past and redo the historical record. And one quite popular 1993 film Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell also dealt with this in various ways.
I will not give all the details away if you have not yet seen the film and want to, but those who have seen it will know this brief outline of the plot:
A jaded and cynical television weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) has to cover Groundhog Day festivities in rural Pennsylvania. He is not thrilled to be there. But he soon finds himself waking up each day to the same scenario. The day keeps repeating itself.
At first he uses this strange situation to his own advantage. But over time he comes to be attracted to his TV producer Rita Hanson (Andie MacDowell). He seeks to woo her, but she is not interested. So he uses these days that keep repeating to change his life in order to win her over.
He seeks to improve himself and actually help other people instead of using and abusing them. He learns French, teaches himself to play piano, and become a sculptor, all to win over Rita. So he had a whole lotta time on his hands to really make some big changes in his life.
Of course this is Hollywood, and not the real world. We do not get infinite chances to get things right. What is done is done – and cannot be undone. Perhaps you are like me: I often wish I could have done things differently. Often I look back on my life and cringe – not only when I was a young hippy in the 60s, but also as a Christian. I think I could have done so many things better, more wisely, and more lovingly.
Again, I cannot go back and do it all over. The past is past. You might feel the same about your past. BUT, we can make amends. We can seek forgiveness and offer restitution for past wrongs. We can try to restore broken relationships, and we can seek to rebuild bridges. So we CAN do some things along the way. We can at least partially overcome or deal with some of our past wrongs, hurts and sins.
God, our sin, and divine memory
And the good news is this: God is able to help us in all this. No, we cannot hop into a time machine and go back and change the past. But with God’s help some real change and some real healing can occur. We may have wasted many years and done much that we now deeply regret. But our Lord can help turn some of this around. As God told the people of Israel, he will restore to them the years that the locusts destroyed (Joel 2:25).
And even more incredibly, we are told that God will not even remember our trespasses and sins! Consider three such amazing passages:
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25)
“I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)
“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)
Now, some of you might have a theological question arise here: ‘How can an omniscient God forget our sin – or anything for that matter?’ Well, the short answer is this: God is not forgetful. But he can and does choose to not ‘remember’ certain things.
That is, in his mercy and grace, he chooses not to hold our sins to our account. And that is because all who come to Christ in faith and repentance know that he died on the cross in our place, suffering on our behalf, in order that we can get right with God.
This sort of divine ‘forgetfulness’ is something we all can rejoice in. When we acknowledge that we are all sinners, separated from God, and fully deserving of his holy hatred and punishment of sin, and cast ourselves on his mercy, based on the finished work of Christ, God treats us as if we had not sinned. He sees us through the lens of his sinless Son.
That is wonderful news indeed. And as I already mentioned, while we cannot undo the past, we can seek to make some things right. We can seek to rebuild broken relationships or offer some form of payback for past wrongs that we committed.
As but one example, soon after I became a Christian, I felt convicted about some record albums I had stolen from a large department store when I was a hippy. So I went back to that store, asked to see the manager, and offered to give him money as restitution.
If I recall correctly, it turned out that this manager was also a Christian, and he offered to take my money and give it to a charity. In doing this I cleared my conscience and dealt with that unhappy memory. This is not always possible, and just because our sins are forgiven by God, that does not necessarily mean that the consequences of our sins disappear immediately.
That was certainly true of King David and his sin for example. And consider another case of this that I have written about previously:
Let me give another example, which also happens to be a true story. A former missionary colleague who I had come to know in Europe had an interesting background as a non-believer. He was a member of the IRA and had been involved in acts of terrorism, including murder. Upon coming to Christ he of course experienced total forgiveness by God.
But does that mean his past actions were now consequence-free? He rightly did not think so. After spending some time as a free man, and a forgiven Christian, he turned himself in to the authorities. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to a prison term. I believe he may still be in prison today. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2007/10/14/sin-forgiveness-and-consequences/
So we may not always be exempt from some of the consequences of our sins and bad choices in this life. But God treats us as if we had not done these sins. So in that sense we are given a new start. We are given a fresh way forward, and we do not need to remain chained to past actions that we now regret.
When we get to heaven, we will see, and marvel at, our Saviour. He will not be reminding us of our sin, but just being with him will remind us of his amazing grace. That is good news indeed. The happy ending of a mythical tale like Groundhog Day can in certain ways become reality for those who put their hope and trust in Christ.
