Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

It’s funny how the older I get, the more like my Dad I become! A multitude of his many mutterings have spontaneously leaped out of my mouth over the last few of Earth’s orbits around the sun to the point that it is almost scary. One of Dad’s sarcastic sayings that I never enjoyed touching my eardrums is the title of this writing – “Shoulda…Coulda…Woulda…”. Allow me to explain. In the event that we found ourselves on a hunting or fishing venture on a day in which all elements for a successful outing lined up perfectly, and then by some cruel intervention of forces beyond our control we didn’t bag the buck or bring home the catch, my young complaint would always go something like this: “It was such a pretty day. We should’ve caught some fish/gotten a deer today!” To his young padawan, the Jedi master of all things outdoors (AKA – my Dad) would predictably respond with his famous, “Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda.” Looking back, I see now that it was his way of politely saying, “Shut up and get over it boy! Things don’t always turn out the way you think they should!” And, continuing to look back, he was right!

Of course, this principle isn’t relegated to the confines of the outdoor activities of hunting and fishing. It is readily applicable to a plethora of locales and situations. Perhaps we should’ve received the award over someone else…but we didn’t. Maybe so-and-so could’ve been a little more caring for us during our moment of grief…but they weren’t. Absolutely we would’ve won the game if the coach would’ve called the other play instead of the one he called…only he didn’t. Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda. But you know what? LIFE GOES ON! Or as Scripture puts it, “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again…” – Proverbs 24:16. 

The only person that’s ever walked the planet that didn’t suffer from the Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda blues is Jesus Himself. Here’s how it goes with our Savior: Jesus should’ve been the perfect Son of God…and he was. Jesus could’ve been the perfect sacrifice for sin…and he was. Jesus would’ve died for the sins of the whole world…and he did.  He went through all the Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda moments and struggles we experience, but He was the One that mastered them all. As the writer of Hebrews puts it, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” – Hebrews 4:15. 

To wrap it all up, let me direct your attention to the picture at the top of this writing. My son was selected to participate in a youth hunt in an area of the state that is notorious for producing some quality bucks. All the elements for a good hunt had lined up, and sitting over a luscious green food plot filled with good grub for big bucks, we were beyond confident that we wold make the nearly three hour trip back home with a hefty deer with lots of antler on its head riding along in the back of the truck…only we didn’t. In fact, we saw only one deer from before daylight until after dark. At some point on the way back home, Trey uttered the words I figured would come…”I can’t believe we didn’t get a deer. I thought for sure we would’ve at least seen a good buck!” To which the now-Jedi master responded to his young padawan with the famous words spoken to him from his own so long ago – “Shoulda…Coulda…Woulda”. Sometimes that’s the way it goes!