H. Lee Scott is the CEO of Wal-Mart Stores. He is also the second-most famous graduate in the history of Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. My mother is the first. (Never miss an opportunity to make up for some of the grief you caused your mother when you were a kid.) Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford Motor Company, graduated up the road from her, at the University of Kansas. And Warren Buffett and Johnny Carson both graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. To the folks in Pittsburg, Kansas, that's a definite step backwards.

Today's Wall Street Journal makes the case: "Nation's top chief executives find path to the corner office usually starts at state university." Leadership talent and a drive for success are the most important ingredients to success. Where you're from is far less important than where you're going.

But where you're from can help you get there. This morning's news profiles Senator Barack Obama's weekend trip to Iowa. The Democrat insists he's not running for president. The enormous and enthusiastic crowds which heard him speak want him to change his mind. His roots (his father was born in Kenya and his mother in Kansas) are a significant part of his allure. Senator John McCain is shown in New Hampshire, evoking his prisoner of war experience in defending the war in Iraq.

What in your past seems to limit your future? Mistakes, failures, and guilt plague us all. If we could do it all over again, most of us wouldn't--not in the same way. But God is in the business of using past failures to mold present character and future significance. The same Moses who fled Pharaoh's soldiers later defied his armies and led the Hebrews to freedom. The same Peter who cowered before a serving girl later faced down the Supreme Court of Israel. The same Saul of Tarsus who sought to exterminate the Christian faith later wrote half of its New Testament.

Why does God allow bad things in our past? Most of them are the result of our misused free will, but all of them can be transformed by his providence and grace into future good. What would you change about your past? Give that regret to God right now. Ask him to redeem it, to use it to grow you and make you more effective in his Kingdom.

Your Father never wastes a hurt. Your past is no limit to his future. He has "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). Give yesterday to him, today. This is the invitation of God.

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