If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 1 John 1:9
More than ten years ago, I made a commitment to start running regularly, hoping to eventually participate in the half marathon that my alma mater, Baylor University, sponsored every year. In pursuit of that goal, I downloaded the Couch to 5K app on my phone, a program which helps you alternate between walking and jogging for 30 minutes at a time. Week 1, you spend more than 20 of those 30 minutes walking; by the 8th and final week you’re running the whole time.
The plan was a huge success for me. Not only did I complete the program, I managed to train for and complete several half marathons and even one full marathon. More importantly, for the first time in my life I had a regular fitness regimen, an exercise routine I actually enjoyed. As recently as just a few years ago, my neighbors recognized me as the guy out running early in the morning, rain or shine. I was a runner.
Fast forward to this year. Now I’ve got two children to help get ready in the morning. Now one of those kids needs to get taken to school by 8:00 AM. Now I have a job where I need to be in the office by 9:00. And, most importantly, now I have a lot of other things I’d rather be doing than running when it’s 90 degrees before sunrise.
So the sad truth is, this year I went nearly 6 months without running regularly, and the few times I tried, I found myself shifting to walking after less than 5 minutes. I might have had a nice pair of running shoes and a pile of race medals in my closet, but I could hardly call myself a runner anymore. So at the beginning of this week, I swallowed my pride, re-downloaded the Couch to 5K app, and rebooted my running journey back to where I’d begun.
Sometimes the only way to move forward is to start over.
In life, sometimes you can feel like you’ve passed the point of no return, like you can’t possibly recover from the mistakes you’ve made. It can seem like you’re blocked on every side and like things will never get any better. But we’ve been given a promise in Scripture—if we’ll confess our sins to God, he wipes us clean and makes us new. All the guilt and the shame that threaten to consume you is taken care of by the blood of Jesus, and you are forgiven, given a fresh start in Christ. In him, you are a new creation.
No matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve fallen, the Lord always stands ready to pick you up and make you new, because the condemnation of sin is no match for the grace of God. Trust in his mercy and accept his forgiveness—he’ll give you the restoration no one else can offer.
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