Going nowhere fast

Today as I was reading through my daily devotionals it struck me how much time I used to spend thinking about the past.  

I think it's like trying to swim upstream. You can swim and swim and swim and generally stay about where you are in the current.

As a kid I used to go down to the river in the summertime and fish, swim and explore with my friends.  Numerous times we would float down stream and have to swim back upstream to get to our skiff.  Usually I would just get tired and turn around and swim with the current.  Swimming with the current let me get to the bank of the river easier so I could sit and rest.  

What I've come to realize over the years is that dwelling on the past has prevented me from going with the flow of life.  With my focus on something other than the present, I wonder what opportunities I may have missed.  Again, that's thinking in the past.  No matter how much we try or wish, it won't change.  The past is the past.  Learn from it and let it go. 

If we can learn to turn around and take life as it comes, it leads to new experiences and the opportunity to capture the dreams of the life we want to live. 

So, grab your inner tube, your sunscreen and sunglasses and enjoy the trip.