Today we are a living history of our past choices. Did they include God?

Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 15:58 "Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in he work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." The last portion of the passage is where I want to focus: "..because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

Although God forgives and forgets our past sinful lives guiding us into the future through the blessing of the Holy Spirit, we exhibit our humanity by recalling our past life. Whether joyful or sad we look back to where we once had been to analyze, in hindsight mode, the different choices we have made and where they have led us. Granted, our current lives are reflections of those choices be they a result of sin, poor choices, or a result of some well thought out life strategy. In any case, whether good or bad, we still live out those consequences despite God’s forgiveness for those resulting from sinful actions. Sometimes during certain melancholic periods of our lives, we might reflect on what we have done with our lives. We might think about our relations with our parents, with our spouse, with our children, with our co-workers, with our friends, and with our neighbors. We might reflect on our lifestyle choices: whether or not to finish high school, learn a trade, attend college, pick up smoking/drinking, choose one job over another, live within our means, or choose our friends. We may then proceed to compare our past decisions with our current state of being. And in our minds fool ourselves into an imaginary state that is neither constructive nor real. A fleeting thought may come that we may have wasted our lives with an "Alice-in-Wonderland" type of incessant running just to catch up without really getting anywhere. Without God in our lives we may be thrown into the pit of despair stemming from a lack of understanding of why things are the way they are. It is like the words of a 1997 song by a band called The Verve " Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony that’s life. Trying to make ends meet. You’re a slave to money then you die (which coincidentally made lot’s of money)." How sad life would be without God. We can rest assured that, as opposed to the sayings of this song, we are slaves to the hope and faith that is in Jesus Christ. This we learn from Romans 6:17-19. And what is this righteousness of which Paul speaks? Where does it come from? To find out we can look at Philippians 3:8-9. Contrary to what some may believe, our spiritual essence is not limited to this sad encounter with the empty promises of worldly gains. We are given additional wisdom about this in 1 John 5:11-12 "And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." When we die there is MORE of life, but it’s in its pure blessed form creation by God. Whether it will be eternally blessed or cursed is up to us.

Be that as it may, we attempt to control most things that we perceive in this life, despite the knowledge that ultimately God is in control. Proverbs 19:21 reminds us: "The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established." Yet sometimes we fear that those things over which we have no control will bring us harm, shame, or sorrow. We then find ourselves susceptible to the thoughts that God may not be with us. That’s when Satan starts fooling us into believing that God doesn’t care.

Let me tell you a story: This man at the airport saw a young boy by himself, staring out of the gate window waiting for his flight to board. When boarding began the young boy was put in front of the line so he could find his seat before the adults boarded the plane. When the man boarded the plane, he saw that the young boy was seated next to him. The two carried on a conversation and the boy was very courteous. After a while, he took out his coloring book and began coloring just to pass the time. He showed no anxiety or worry with the flight as all the preparations were being made to take-off. During the flight, the plane went through a very terrible storm. It made the plane rock back and forth like a light feather moved about by the wind. It made it shake and shudder to the point that some of the passengers became scared. But the young boy seemed to be taking everything in stride without the slightest agitation. One of the women passengers sitting across the aisle from the boy became worried with all that was going on and asked the young boy: Are you scared? The young boy, lifting his eyes from the coloring book to address the woman said: No Ma’am, I’m not scared. MY FATHER IS THE PILOT.

Sometimes we encounter situations in our lives that remind us of going through a terrible storm inside an airplane. Try as we might, we seem to feel as though we are not on solid ground. We get this feeling of being suspended in mid air with nothing to support us, re-assure us, or sustain us. It is during these times that we must remember with calm and confidence that GOD is our pilot. Let’s look at Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Isaiah 41:10 tells us the same things. As always we have only to look at the actions of Jesus Christ during one of his most trying times as he was facing crucifixion. In Matthew 26: 39, 42 he showed us how to accept the will of God regardless of what we want. We are to submit ourselves to the will of God as the ancient Proverbs tell us and Jesus showed us. And as we do that, God leads us in a triumphal procession through the machinations or schemes of the world at large 2 Corinthians 2:14. If we are to be led in triumph and become the fragrance, or sweet aroma, that touches the senses of all those around us, then our lives would never have been lived in vain. True to hope of this promise Paul lived his life as told to us in Philippians 3:10-16. All that is in the past does not matter. Of more importance is the "goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus." "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead."

Every day we should live our lives so that we can reflect at the end of the day and find no regrets. If we do find some, our duty for the next day is to correct those missteps. So given the condition that we have Jesus Christ in our hearts, minds, and souls, near the end of our journey in this world we can look back at our lives and know that they have not been a waste for a single minute no matter what road our lives took.

But we must take that first step by repenting and accepting the road that Jesus would have us follow.

Jorge Monreal