“I would rather regret some of my failures in life than to live my life failing to forget my regrets.” GR

In other words, failing at something and getting back up is much less painful than to look back and regret not doing something (or doing something) and not being able to go back and change the outcome. Each one of us has failed at something in life, some of us more than others. Some of our mishaps we have forgotten, others may still be eating away at us like a disease. I would think it’s much easier to recall our failures in life than to bring up some of our regrets we may have. Neither failure nor regret can we change from our past, but we can chose to heal our regrets.

Did Jesus experience failures? Jesus was made perfect in the sight of God, but he also was a person with human emotions and characteristics. I would guess at times he felt things may not be going his way and failure may have been his feeling of choice at that moment. Maybe the only time he had a regret was when he went up to pray on the Mt. of Olives the night before his crucifixion and cried out to God to take the world’s burden off his shoulders. But even then he knew in his heart God’s purpose for his life and it wasn’t supposed to be full of any regrets.

Do you have any regrets today that need healing? If you think about it you probably can find one or two. Can you do something about it? In one or more cases you probably can. Will you do anything about it? That’s up to you. Just think how freeing and uplifting that would feel if you had one less regret, not to mention what it might do for the other people involved. Maybe you need to forgive someone or maybe you need to ask someone to forgive you. The bible says, “Get along with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does you wrong, forgive that person as the Lord forgave you” Colossians 3:13.

I happened to be an adopted child at 5 days old. I grew up around my biological family of four siblings. I chose not to have a relationship with them for thirty-six years for a number of reasons that were not good ones. It was only until last year in a hospital shared by my adopted mother and their father (not my biological father) that God gave me an opportunity to voice to all of them in one room of my regrets. Growing up I regretted not being a close brother for all those years when I had the chance to. I regretted not being an uncle to their children when they didn’t understand my actions. And I regretted my prideful nature of thinking it was their choice to come to me. All this didn’t change the past, yet it built some bridges so we could move forward. But, in some creative way of God’s in that hospital room that summer day, eight people came together from all over the country. Maybe, just maybe for the reason that one of us or all of us could walk away that day having one less regret to remember. In what originally were two people having life threating surgeries turned out to be a miracle of God’s. Coincidence? I don’t believe so. God’s perfect plan? Yes, I have no doubt. Do I feel better by healing that regret? You bet! Yes, I do regret some of my failures, but there’s one regret I will be able to forget for the rest of my life. Bob talked about the beatitudes this weekend. What better way to be merciful, and a peacemaker than to take care of a regret.

How do you think Jesus felt after he was resurrected from the grave? Glad he did it? Yes! What will you do this week to be able to forget one or more of your regrets in life? Will you be merciful? Will you be a peacemaker? Or will you push it away again, OR WILL YOU ACT?

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