Mistakes We Can Never Undo - The Warrior's Journey®
Moral Injury

Mistakes We Can Never Undo

170127-F-LA783-0781. Photo by Air Force is licensed under CC By 2.0

We still do not know all of the details.

But recently a man crashed his silver car into a black SUV. Sources from the Altair Republic in Southern Russia report the account of a recent car accident. It appears the driver of the SUV came to close to the silver car. As a result, the silver car’s front left door caved-in.

Since Russia does not require its drivers to purchase car insurance, neither driver had any. The driver of the silver car was stuck with some ugly dents. He couldn’t afford to fix them. Rather than cringing every day at the sight of the dents, he decided to do something about it.

Don’t despair. God is in the redemption business and is supremely skilled at turning mistakes into murals.

He purchased two black permanent markers and began to create a pictorial map over the dents. His artwork was exceptional. He actually used the “caved in” portion of the car door for his picture of a local lake. He completed it with the beautiful Altair Mountains in the background, road routes, towns and points of interest.

CarAccidentOnlookers even confessed that the mural is an improvement over the undamaged door. One news article referred to it as a classic example of “turning lemons into lemonade.”

This Russian turned the ugly dents in his car into something beautiful. God can do the same with the ugly consequences of our own mistakes.

All of us have our share of regrettable, yet forgettable, blunders. But there are some mistakes which do significant damage to our relationships. They do damage to our career, our health and our testimony for the Lord. If there is any measure of tenderness within our hearts, then we will suffer an overwhelming sense of remorse. The temptation is to believe that there’s no point in going on. That there is no hope of anything good or redeeming coming from our disaster.

Yet what that sadder-but-wiser Russian driver did with his dents, God can do with ours. God can take the self-inflicted damage in our lives and turn it into something beautiful. He can turn it into something that will bless humanity and bring glory to Himself, the divine Artist.

One look at the Messiah’s genealogy recorded in Matthew chapter one reveals this. Three people in Jesus Christ’s genealogy were born out of “sinful relationships.”

Jesus’ ancestor, Perez, was conceived out of the incestuous encounter between Judah and his daughter-in-law, Tamar.

Boaz, great-grandfather of King David (also in the lineage of Jesus), was the son of Salmon and Rahab the prostitute.

And King David’s own son, King Solomon, was born of Bathsheba. David had murdered Bathsheba’s previous husband so he could take her for himself.

God can take the self-inflicted damage in our lives and turn it into something beautiful.

All these sins came under God’s judgment. But the people who committed them looked to God for mercy and found it. God even used their terrible and tragic mistakes to bring about the greatest prophet to walk the earth. The Prophet named Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Redeemer of humanity.

So don’t despair. God is in the redemption business and is supremely skilled at turning mistakes into murals.

PRAYER:

Dear Father in heaven, I still cringe over sins committed long ago. But I praise and bless Your name for forgiving me and for creating something beautiful from their damage. Thank You that Your redemptive powers far exceed my failures. Thank You for cause all things to work together for my ultimate good and Your ultimate glory. Amen.


(Information from: http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/russian-driverturns-dented-car-door-into-an-artistic-map.html;

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/russian-man-turns-his-damaged-car-doorinto-a-work-191110429.html)

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