Nobody wants the pain of wasted years – years that were spent in much futility and in much foolishness. Still, many, if not all, of us spend our years wasting away, chasing things that God didn't mean for us to pursue. Yet, because of God's great love, we have hope that our wasted years can be restored.
'How'd I Get Here?'
Many of us don't realise that we're already wasting our lives on something that isn't even important.
Some of us try to pursue a great career, investing years of study and much hard work, only to realise that when we get old without a purpose, careers are nothing but means to a living.
Some of us try to pursue that imagined love of a lifetime, only to find out later that it's not worth it. Great thing is if you're able to realise that that pursuit is nothing but a vain desire for self-gratification, and lose your chains before tying the knot and donning the rings. But if you're not, you're in for the most unwanted ride that lasts a lifetime.
These, and many more pursuits, have always been found in the lives of people who end up having many regrets in life. "Wasted years," they say. "How'd I end up in such a mess?" they ask. "I didn't want this to happen," they declare. Problem is, it's our decision that brought us there into the mess that we find ourselves in. We can't blame anybody for something we ourselves have chosen.
God's Purposes Takes the 'Wasted' Off from 'Wasted Years'
Still, even in the midst of our self-caused dilemma, God remains good and mighty to save. Our wasted years are but short moments in His eyes (see 2 Peter 3:8), an unpleasant albeit necessary part of our moulding towards the character of Christ, whom we so boldly profess to follow.
If that sounds absurd or sadistic to you, consider Romans 8:28-29, which says "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."
Friends, our wasted years sure are wasted. We could have spent those years pursuing God instead. We could've dedicated our time to knowing Him and learning to do what pleases Him. We could've done something profitable and not regrettable. True, those years were wasted years.
Yet, however wasted those years might be, we cannot deny the fact that if we have turned back to God, those wasted years become years of great learning for us. We learn what was wrong, what we shouldn't do, what we could've chosen instead. We grow up from our mistakes that led to years being laid waste.
The learning we receive from wasted years should propel us to love God who rescued us and did not allow another day of our lives to go to waste. Those lessons should have revealed to us how gracious and kind our God is.
God uses our wasted years so that we would know Christ and follow Him for the rest of our lives.
"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:7-11)
