RIEGELS

On New Year's Day, 1929, the University of California at Berkeley was playing Georgia Tech in the Rose Bowl.  Roy Riegels, a Cal defensive back recovered a Georgia Tech fumble, ran across the field and turned to run 75 yards in the wrong direction ... straight toward the University of California's goal line.

One of Riegles' teammates tackled him just before he scored ... for Georgia Tech.  On the next play Georgia blocked the punt and scored.

From that day forward Roy Riegels was called 'Wrong Way Riegels' -- the guy who ran the wrong way in the Rose Bowl.

Super embarrassing.

Maybe our failures haven't been as conspicuous as Roy Riegels, but we have our own wrong way runs and the bad memories that go with them.  There are things in our past we wish we could undo or redo, things we wish we could forget.  If only we could begin again.

                              If only we could begin again.

A poet wrote:
'I wish there were some place 
Called the Land of Beginning Again,
Where all our mistakes, heartaches and grief
Could be dropped like an old coat at the door
And never be put on again.'

Guess what?  There is such a place.  It's found in the grace of God -- a grace that not only completely forgives our past and puts it away, but uses it to make us better than before.

And be blessed.