Where is the "Undo" Button on this Thing?!

Last week my son wanted me to play some games with him. We played Uno, checkers, something akin to Jenga, and chess. Now my son likes to play chess on the computer because before you make any move you can have the computer show you every possible move you can make, and it will not allow you to make a move that will put your king in danger by accident. Also, as if this is not help enough, there is an "Undo" button that you can use any time you don't like the direction the game is heading. Perhaps in moving your bishop to take the opposing rook, you don't notice the danger posed by the opposing queen who swiftly snatches up the offending bishop; no problem, just click "Undo". You could also call this one the "Easy" button.

While Jordan thoroughly enjoys playing this way on the computer, he was not prepared for what a game with a person would entail. Now, I am by NO means an expert chess player. While I do enjoy it, I am someone who is ready to move on to something new, not spend half of my afternoon plotting strategy that will ultimately not gain me anything of worth, besides bragging rights... So, we sat down and began to play, and he was really into it at first. But then, he made an unwise move and lost his queen. Immediately, he snatches up his queen and starts yelling "Undo! Undo!!!" After about two minutes of explaining to him that I am not a computer and this is what it's like to play against people, he gives up - not just on the fight to regain his queen, but he is now frustrated and just wants the whole game overwith.

As I sat there and thought about it, I realized that this is how we often feel in life. We mess up, we open our big mouth, we don't say what we should have, we don't do what we should have, we forget something important, we fall, we sin; and suddenly our mind is crying "UNDO!" However, in life, as in the chess game, there is no undo button. When we make a wrong move there is no going back. We can cry, we can grit our teeth, we can bang our fists, but we can't undo what has been done.

And yet, hope is NOT lost. It's not over!

Life moves forward at a frighteningly quick pace. And that, my friends, is the point... it moves FORWARD. We so often make the wrong moves on the board, and often lose important players (people or things) that meant so much to us; and no matter how much we might wish for it, we can't get them back. But we don't give up! We keep moving forward. We set our feet firmly on the ground, we look to the Lord for guidance in our next moves, and we don't look back. Paul said in Phillipians 3:13, "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." We don't actually forget what is behind - we don't actually wipe our memory clean - but we change our focus to what is before us. Our memories, good and bad, serve to aid us in our daily walk. They help us to remember what is important, while not making the same mistakes over and over.

There is no "Undo" button in life. But there is wisdom to make the right decisions and move on.