Life Magazine published it's 20 most regrettable covers online recently. Some of them were simply awful. It was a fun way for them to look back on some of their past mistakes and call themselves out for poor oversight and design. They basically said in an enjoyable manner, "We messed up and here are our awful mistakes for everyone to see."

It made me reflect for a moment. I have a lot of moments in my life that I dwell on from my past that were not so good. They are moments my mind drifts back to that I cling to selfishly, wishing they would be wiped away. Some of them are regrettable moments that others will remember where I made a terrible error. Other moments are things that have no history besides being written on the pages of my mind.

Here's a really stupid one. When I was in college, we had intramural flag football. One game, we were playing against a team that we really didn't like. In fact, I couldn't stand one of the guys on the offensive line. I'm not a big guy at all, but during one play, I got overly aggressive and gave him a cheap shot when the play was over. It was unnecessary. What made it really memorable was when the team ran a play to my side the next time and three of them planted me on my butt.

I stewed about it for a week. And it still makes me angry. Angry that I let my emotions get the best of me. Angry that I got knocked down. And it was not one of my proudest moments. But it's still there.

Is it that big of a deal? Yes. No.

It's one of the covers of my life I'd publish if I were doing "regrettable moments" from my life. There are more. A lot more. Worse moments. We all have them.

Maybe we had a chance to help someone in need. Maybe we turned our back on a friend. Maybe we said something we couldn't take back. Maybe we did something we have never told anyone. And we hold onto it forever.

While doing interviews <a href="http://store.civitaspress.com/books/284">for my upcoming book</a>, I was interviewing a fellow fallen pastor. He said one of the most remarkable things I've ever heard. I asked him something along the lines of, "What do you wish had happened differently?"

He didn't hesitate. He said, "The past can be slavery and the future can be idolatry. Don't look back, don't look too far forward or you'll miss what's happening right now where the kingdom and spirit are."

That gave me tremendous peace. There's a time to put away the horrendous covers of our past failures and least memorable moments. Sure, it's hard to forget them when they've been published and put out there for the world to see. But that doesn't mean we have to keep rereading the same material over and over again, reminding ourselves of the past.

There's "Life" going on now that demands to be cherished and lived.