The only chance

'Not long ago I read a newspaper article about an executive at Boeing. The reporter asked him to name the secret of his success, and he said, "There is nothing you can do about the past. The only thing you can do anything about is the future." Christ saw life very differently. For Christ, the only thing you can do anything about is your past. God alone can deal with your future. If you have repented of your past, if you have taken an inventory of the full extent of hurt, victimhood, malice, and self-service that describe your achieved life, if you have said one single needful word, "sorry," then that is all. There is nothing more. The future which Paul would later call the "fruit of the Spirit," flows totally from "sorry". The past resolved gives the present its only chance. The future is the Spirits job.'

Grace in Practice, Paul Zahl, Page 11