Looking back and Looking forward

Tonight was spent with a great friend. It started out as a spontaneous trip for ice cream. It ended three hours later. And I needed it.

Have you ever been looking forward in your life for so long, that you forget to look back? That you forget to stop, turn around, and see how far you have come? How much you have changed? The person you used to be?

A lot of my past was revisited in our conversations tonight. And I realized something. It doesn't hurt anymore. I can talk about my past, reference certain turning points, and see how God was at work the entire time. I find myself stopping and thinking about how my experiences relate to those in the Bible. How there is only one person in the Bible who never screwed up. How David murdered an innocent man to cover his mistake - but yet God still loves him and chose to use him as an example of a Godly man.

All too often we read about grace in the Bible, but forget that these were real people, with real problems and real faults. We read the stories and see in a few words God extending grace, but it's so hard to imagine it works the same for all of us. We are no different. We are all children of God and grace is in the reach of each and every one of us. We just need to ask for it.

Looking back tonight reminded me of how far I've come, but more importantly, it reminded me of all the grace I've been given. And how long it took me to accept it. I pray for my friends to realize what an amazing gift the grace of God truly is, and will choose to accept it. God has great things in store for his children - we just need to stop getting in the way.