Hindsight

They say hindsight is a beautiful thing. But maybe it isn't... After all, while I'm entirely certain that time travel has never been done before, every movie that explores that idea has shown us that it isn't a good idea.

Back to the Future... We learned that to go back in time and change one event can set in motion an entire chain of events that completely changes the future: the good things and the bad things. Same with the Butterfly Effect. I haven't seen the movie yet, but here's "The Scoop" from starseeker.com: "A young man suffering from the psychological effects of childhood memories finds a way to travel back in time to exist in his childhood body, but each trip back only makes the problem worse as his actions in the past have unintended consequences on the present."

I could continue trying to convince you, but movies have taught us our lesson: changing bad things in the past will change good things in the future.

And so why is it that I constantly look back and say, "I wish I would have made a different choice back then"?

We have something more to go by than movies. God promises that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). He also promises that struggles and trials are completely inevitable (John 16:33). Do you really want to go back in time and trade the set of struggles you have now for a completely different set of struggles? Because there's no way we can escape them.

There is one thing we can do with the difficult times that come our way. We can learn from them, and use them to draw us closer to God. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's so true. And the longer I fight that truth, the longer I stay in the rut that struggles bring. Because here's the reality: we can't go back in time. We can only work with the present. We can only change the decisions we haven't yet made.

They say hindsight is a beautiful thing. And maybe it is... but not when we look back and say, "If only." Hindsight is a beautiful thing when we can see that the only reason we are who we are today is because of those hard times. Hindsight is a beautiful thing when we realize that a lot of the good in our lives is there only because of the bad. Hindsight is a beautiful thing when we can look back and see the hand of God shaping us into the beautiful people that we are today.