🏝️ The Island of Regret
There’s an island I used to visit often — called Regret.
You don’t mean to end up there.
You just drift toward it slowly
One memory at a time.
One mistake at a time.
One “I wish I could go back” at a time.
For years, I replayed moments I couldn’t change — especially the people I had hurt.
After walking away from a lifetime in ministry, this was the hardest one to face.
I’d see my old friends still preaching, still leading, still walking in their callings,
and I’d think to myself, “What have I done?”
I never meant to stay gone this long. This was the hardest one.
I convinced myself God was done — that He was finished with me, that He had used me and tossed me aside when He was through with me.
I had convinced myself God had abandoned me, that He had left me after I had given Him all of my youth.
Sixteen years of silence between me and God.
Sixteen years of convincing myself it was too late —that I had missed my chance.
I lived in yesterday.
In the words I shouldn’t have said.
In the bridges I burned.
In the moments I couldn’t undo.
But here’s what I’ve learned —
God can redeem what you lost, but not while you’re still living in it.
The truth is, God doesn’t live in yesterday.
He meets you in the right now.
God spoke to my heart this week and said
“You can’t move forward while you’re staring backward.”
Regret can feel spiritual — it looks like reflection, but it’s really just another riptide pulling you deeper into the past.
You can’t heal what you keep replaying.
God promised in Joel 2:25,
“I will restore the years the locusts have eaten.”
That means even the years I thought were wasted —the angry years, the quiet years, the unforgiving years —He can still redeem them all.
Every mistake became a lesson.
Every scar became a story.
Every failure became a setup for grace.
“Restore” doesn’t mean God simply gives you back what you lost.
It means He can make the years that seemed wasted bear fruit again — in ways that only grace can.
The time you spent away from God? He can use it as testimony.
The mistakes that broke you? He can turn them into wisdom.
The relationships that fell apart? He can bring new ones that are stronger.
God doesn’t just return what was stolen — He transforms it.
I have come to discover my path was leading me to my purpose.
If you’re stuck on the Island of Regret, I understand you. Regret builds prisons — but grace builds bridges.
God’s already got a boat waiting to take you off that island.
Stop staring at what you can’t change.
Start walking toward what He’s redeeming.
Because lost years aren’t wasted years when God restores them.
And the same God who restores lost years…is the one who never stopped waiting for you to come home. 🙏