By Lois Hewitt

Do you ever stop and think about how far you have come?  It is easy to look back and start kicking yourself. But what if we all started to look back and feel good about the journey?

For example, I have lived under a self-proclaimed dark cloud because I dropped out of high school.  High school means very little to me know but I ruminate over the fact I didn’t finish. 

I did get my GED. I was too drunk to remember even taking the test.  So that doesn’t make me feel better.

I did work hard to get my Associate Degree and most of my Bachelors Degree. But I didn’t really finish that either.

I never felt like I earned anything. Like somehow I squeezed my way through things but that I did not deserve it.  All because I dropped out of high school.

That stigma has followed me through all these years. That was so long ago, how can it still effect me?

Remorse, I think, keeps me from considering myself a success in any form.  I regret many things in my life and any good I have, I feel I do not deserve.

But the truth is that blip on my life’s timeline is not what defines me.  It is part of me but not the entirety of me. 

I think we all give too much power to our stumbles and falls.  The reality is we got back up, looked around, dusted ourselves off and kept walking. Why don’t we celebrate that?

Instead we wallow and languish away in our failures. Failures, in essence, are what show us the way.  You do something and fail, you reevaluate where you are heading.  You take the failures and learn what not to do…which can be more important than knowing what to do.

My blog started off being about my Epic Journey and somewhere along the way I forgot about the journey as I only looked for the destination.

Sit, if you will for a moment. And think about how far you have truly come in your life.  Depending on age and experience, I imagine you have grown in so many ways.  That is worthy of celebration.

We tend to condemn ourselves for past mistakes.  We never forget the bad, while the good things we have done fade away into oblivion.

As a Christian, I have been made new through the blood shed on the cross.  Jesus forgives me as I confess my sins. Yet I cannot quite forgive myself. Isn’t that an affront to Jesus? Who painfully died as a sacrifice for me.

I hadn’t thought about it that way. I assumed my lack of understanding of my own situation was my penance for the past. Now I see it differently.

The person I saw in the mirror then is light years away from who I see today and isn’t the same as the person I will see.

Let’s quit wringing our hands over who we were. Let’s start celebrating who we are and let’s look forward to who we become.

Yes I made many mistakes. Yes I learned from them. My biggest success is learning to take all of it, good and bad, to the foot of the cross. Jesus came to give us life abundantly. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to waste another moment moping around like a dog that’s been beat.

I know I did not get here on my own but I got here. That is worthy of a small celebration.  Don’t you think?

If you know Jesus, remember He died for you. He suffered on the cross for you.  He loves you in a way we cannot comprehend. He has given us the ultimate gift…a new life. I do not want to squander that gift any more. You with me?  Just look how far we have come!