One day, the devil appeared to three monks and asked them, one by one, what they would change in the past. He asked: “If I gave you the power to change something in your past, what would you change?”
The first monk, with great apostolic zeal, quickly responded: “I would prevent you from causing Adam and Eve to fall into sin, so that humanity would not stray from God.”
The second monk, whose heart was full of mercy, replied: “I would stop you from turning away from God and condemning yourself forever.”
The third monk was the simplest of the three. Instead of answering the devil, he knelt down, made the sign of the cross, and prayed: “Lord, deliver me from the temptation of what could have been but never was.”
The devil then let out a shrill scream and, writhing in pain, disappeared.
Amazed, the other two asked their fellow monk: “Brother, why did you answer like that?”
The monk explained: “First of all, we should never engage in dialogue with the enemy. Secondly, no one in this world has the power to change the past. Thirdly, the devil is not interested in helping us; rather, he wants to trap us in the past so we neglect the present.
Why? Because the present is the only time when, through divine grace, we can collaborate with God.
The devil’s strategy to entrap people and prevent them from living in union with God in the present is to make them dwell on what could have been but never was.”
MORAL: We leave the past in the hands of God’s Mercy and the future in the hands of His Providence. The present is in our hands, united with God’s hands.
Source: Father Christopher (Orthodox priest, Romania.) on Substack