I am tryin' to make the right choice (362.6 pounds)

A kids song from my childhood circulated in my head this week after I recalled a conversation that I had with a friend from my youth.  You may know the song, it goes:

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise
with a capital "P"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality.
I am learnin' to hear God's voice
and I am tryin' to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

It can be fun at times to sit around and reminisce about days gone by.  Sometimes, however, it can also be very sobering to recall some of the regrets you have had in life.  My friend has lived a very hard life for such a young man.  There were many events in his life (some by his choice and others beyond his control) that had him feeling guilty, remorseful and condemned.  I was able to share with my friend a short chapter out of the book "Living The Cross Centered Life" by C.J. Mahaney of which these words really resonated:

Here's how to beat condemnation:  Confess your sin to God...then believe in him.  Exercise the gift of faith God has given you to believe that Jesus died for the very sins you are feeling condemned for.  The punishment He received was for you.  His resurrection is proof that God accepted Jesus' sacrifice.  The sins of your distant past as well as your sins of yesterday were all atoned for; you need carry their weigh no more.  You can't atone for your sin.  That is why Jesus did it for you.

After re-reading that chapter of the book in preparation for sending it to my friend, my own heart was convicted.  I like my friend struggle with the regrets of past failures and shortcomings.  God used my childhood friend this week to remind me that ...There is therefor now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  Yes, it may seem harder sometimes to "hear God's voice" and "make the right choice" like the children's song says but there is certainly easier without a load of sin and guilt to weight me down.

As far as my weigh in this week goes, I wish I would have lost more, but I will take the 2.4 pound loss for sure.