This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
“We cannot go back and make a new start, but we can start now to make a new ending.”
I am a regret kind of a person.
I spend way too much of my life looking back at mistakes I made or things that went wrong, and wishing I could change them, analyzing the moments and the decisions that evolved into disaster until my mind is sick with frustration and futility. I cannot change the past, but I do allow myself to destroy my present and my future.
How do I step out of it?
As I read through the 9/11 tributes, I find myself growing angrier as I read each tragic story. These people did not need to die. It shouldn’t have happened. These children deserve to have their Mommies and their Daddies back.
While I remember, honor and pray for these people and their families, how can I “start to make a new ending” out of this mess?
And then I remember the children and the lesson they teach about resilience and healing. They may have lost their Mommy, or their Daddy may not be the one to teach them to ride their bike, and they will cry and grieve. But they will also get back up and play again. They will still laugh, love and learn. They will still grow.
There is a time for mourning and for learning from mistakes. But there is also a time for healing and growth.
And our Lord will hold us close and wipe our tears if we allow Him. He will weep alongside us and then He will heal us and make us stronger.
There is pain in this world. Jesus assures us it will be so, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Death and suffering are tied to this world and we can have a future one day without it, safe with Christ in Heaven where our tears will never fall again.
So while I weep today for all that was lost, I also thank God for all that will come. And I pray that we will all allow Christ to bring us to that day.
“God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:3-4
Interactive Faith Builders is a new meme starting today at “Faith Lifts”.
Click here to read more posts about “faith” from other bloggers. And then join us… simply write a post about “faith” on your own blog and then sign the list at Faith Lifts.
Barb says
You’re so right, Janice. Our hope is knowing what will come. I so agree with you that we have to heal but we also have to pray hard that this never happens again.
sonja brooks says
I like this part of your post the most. ……And then I remember the children and the lesson they teach about resilience and healing………if there is anything to remember at 911 it is that………..great post………sonja brooks
Kari says
“There is a time for mourning and for learning from mistakes. But there is also a time for healing and growth.”
There is such truth in this! Thank you for this post, and for introducing the new meme.
I am always looking for that which santifies and encourages on the web, and for that which enourages me to write that which encourages and brings glory to God. This meme helps on both accounts!
In Christ alone,
Kari
http://www.HealedWaters.com
Blog Team,
http://www.christianwomenonline.net/blog.html
Susanne says
We can learn so much from the children, can’t we? No wonder the Lord said to come as a child.