Regret is a feeling that causes us to look back over our pasts and cry, cringe, blush, wilt, or make one of any number of other sheepish responses. Sometimes we might wish it were possible to turn back time and get another chance at that blown interview, that broken relationship, that lost opportunity; anything to avoid having to relive the consequences of a painful mistake, even if those consequences are the private ache of a bruised ego or a sore conscience.
It would be nice to have a “do-over”—in golf, it’s called a mulligan. There are things I’ve said and done that I remember all too well, and hope that others have forgotten. There are things that I didn’t do that I wish I had. I live with those things. They remind me to do better, to be better. But regret? No. Not that.
In Christ, it is not our past that defines us. Saints move forward with an eye to the glorious future. As much as we may feel the weight of some bad thing done—or some great thing left undone—Jesus calls us to let go of the burdens that drag us down and to take up his, for his yoke is easy, and his burden, light.
That’s something to think about.
Westside Church of Christ 