“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first,'” Exodus 34:1a
Moses became angry and threw the tablets down and broke them. Does Moses have an anger problem? He killed a man. Hit the rock. And broke the tablets. Could be. But that’s not my point. My point is this – even though those very, very important tablets had been destroyed by Moses’ own doing, God says to him (very calmly, I would imagine) to cut two more tablets like the first ones. In other words, the past is in the past. Yes, the people messed up. And Moses messed up. But the plan was to put that behind them and move forward. So the next step was not to wallow in self-condemnation. The next step was to secure two more tablets and get back to work.
That is the simple calling of God for my life as well. And yours. Yes, we’ve made some mistakes. We’ve maybe even destroyed some things that were built. But that’s in the past. The question for me, and for everyone who wants to move forward in their life, is, are we willing to leave the past in the past and move on? Dwelling on it won’t help. Beating ourselves up over it won’t help.
Imagine if Moses had sat and sulked over the broken tablets instead of moving on and getting two more. That was clearly not an option.
Unfortunately, things happen. We’re not perfect, and we never will be. Thankfully, we serve a God who is rich in mercy. He is all about giving us second chances. Let’s accept and embrace them. But more importantly, let’s embrace the God who graciously extends them.