Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Good morning from Colorado!
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” — Isaiah 43:18
Yesterday, we talked about gathering the fragments. Today, I want us to think about what happens after we’ve gathered them.
Sometimes we carry the pieces of our past around with us for so long that we forget they are pieces of something that has already happened. A failed relationship, a missed opportunity, a career setback, an unfinished degree, a business that didn’t work, a financial mistake, or a dream that didn’t happen the way we expected can become part of how we see ourselves.
And if we’re not careful, we can begin looking at our future through the eyes of our past.
That’s a dangerous place to live.
There is nothing wrong with learning from what happened. In fact, we should. Our experiences can teach us things that success never could. But there is a difference between learning from the past and living in it.
God told Isaiah to remind His people not to dwell on former things because He was doing something new. Notice that God didn’t tell them the past never happened. He simply told them not to make the past the place where they stayed.
Maybe that’s something we need to hear today.
You may have fragments, but you are not the fragments.
You may have failed, but you are not a failure.
You may have lost an opportunity, but that doesn’t mean every opportunity is gone.
You may have taken a wrong turn, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay on that road.
Sometimes we become so focused on what was broken that we fail to recognize what God can still build.
And perhaps this is where faith takes another step.
Faith isn’t always believing that God will restore everything exactly as it was. Sometimes faith means believing that He can still do something meaningful with what remains.
That unfinished degree may have taught you discipline.
That failed business may have taught you how to recognize what doesn’t work.
That difficult season may have shown you a strength you didn’t know you possessed.
That disappointment may have redirected you toward something you would never have considered otherwise.
We don’t have to call every painful experience good. Some things hurt. Some losses are real. Some dreams genuinely die.
But we don’t have to let those experiences convince us that our story is over.
So today, let’s take another look at our fragments.
Not to mourn everything that was lost.
Not to pretend everything is fine.
But to ask a different question:
What can God do with what remains?
I’ll see you tomorrow for another 15 Minutes with God.
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