“You’re a much neater person healed than you would have been well.”

That’s what Beth Moore told her husband when he mused wistfully about what kind of person he could have been if not for the tragedy and “set on fire by hell” stuff of his youth.

And with that insight, I hope we can once and for all stop hitting the rewind button on our lives and wishing we could start over again — with a different father, a different personality, and a different hand to play. We have all done unto and been done unto. We all bear scars, both self-inflicted and inflicted by others. But cheer up. As Flannery O’Connor said, anybody who has survived childhood has enough material to write a book. And, more importantly, enough experience to be useful to a hurting brother or sister somewhere down the line.

As a “well” person you would have been insufferable. Even now, after battling the bulge for twenty years, if you ever lost that fifty pounds, it would be hard not to swap the problem of obesity for pride. Sometimes God will send a tiny reminder of an overcome addiction or condition (like depression) to give you fresh compassion and humility, rather than your having to rely on memory.

I know a teenage girl who is working hard through forgiving a cult that messed up her life. I wish she could see how beautiful she looks to me.