Going Back Is Worse Than Useless

It is perfectly understandable that when we are in pain, whether it be physical or emotional or spiritual, we want to go back to a time and condition from before the pain started. This is especially true when we are feeling remorse for the mistakes we made. We wish we could take it back, go back to that moment where we veered off track and proceed forward from there, and then everything would be better. Well, first of all, even if we could go back and fix some of our mistakes, not EVERYTHING would be better. Some things might be better, but the bottom line is even if we somehow had the ability to time travel and fix some of our mistakes, that wouldn’t remove us from the underlying human condition of having to go through trials and hardships while we are on this Earth. But asking God to just take us back to who we were before we sinned or were injured or heartbroken is showing a lack of vision. Christ doesn’t want to just heal us back to our old selves, He wants to make us better. Like Christ said, you don’t pour new wine into old bottles. There is a reason that the process of repentance and especially the parts that deal with baptism or the weekly renewal of baptismal covenants through partaking of the Sacrament has the symbolism of death and rebirth. However good your life used to be before your current trial, God wants to make it better than that. Christ doesn’t just fix what’s broken. He makes it better than it used to be. And we shouldn’t want to go back to the way things were anyway. There are things that we have learned - patience, humility, strength - that we would be very sorry to give up, for we have bought them with a dear price. As Joseph Smith said, "shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad." (D&C 128:22). The gospel is always about onward and upward. Never look back.