My sons and I watched a great movie from the nineties called Cool Runnings. For those who are unfamiliar, it’s the true story of the first Jamaican bobsled team. Three men trained extensively in hopes of qualifying for the Jamaican Olympic team as sprinters but one of them tripped and caused all three to fall in the qualifying round. Instead of giving up, they found another guy and hunted down a man who had been in the Olympics for bobsledding previously. It was one of those feel-good stories about overcoming. They didn’t win, but their hard work earned the respect of the other teams.

The coach stood out to me. His team won the bobsledding gold medal sixteen years earlier, but shortly after winning the award, the team was stripped of their gold. The guy cheated by putting weights in the nose of their sled and didn’t tell his teammates. Not only were they disqualified, but they were humiliated. All because of one man’s thirst for being the best, no matter the cost.

But what I loved was when he owned his mistakes. He fessed up before the Olympic board and fought for his team and the hard work they put in. He apologized for being a self-centered cheater and confessed his moral failure. Instead of running away, like he’d done for sixteen years, he faced his past and tried to help others not repeat his mistakes in their future.

It’s amazing what a span of time does to our lives. Years of living in shame and guilt nearly ruined this guy. He drank and gambled his life away, gaining tons of weight and a lousy attitude. But when he committed to helping these guys, he decided to hit his brokenness head-on and help these young men reach their goal.

I’m so glad I’m not the same as I was sixteen years ago. I’m glad I’ve learned that the world doesn’t revolve around me. And I’m glad that others’ success matters more than my own.

Like cheese or a fine wine, we have the opportunity to become better with time. We can learn from our worst moments and make sure we never return. And we can offer our mistakes to Jesus and let him redeem what the enemy wanted to ruin us with.

The coach redeemed his mistake; he was no longer the same.

And so can we.

I’m so glad I’m not the same anymore. How about you?