Would You Have Any Regrets? Part 1 — Morning Devotions

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I read an interesting online discussion forum on this topic, one that we don’t deal with very often and maybe one that we ignore. However, it challenged me nonetheless, and this was the question: if you were to die tomorrow, would you have any regrets?

Now, this is an amazing question. I want talk about it. It’s a challenging question, and I wonder how you would react to it if you were to die tomorrow, would you die having any regrets?

And if so, what would you wish that you would have done prior to that last day here on Earth? What in your life would you have changed? And there were some interesting replies on the forum. There are too many to count. Someone said, I’m just useless. I should have taken more chances. I regret it. I’m pathetic. And someone else said, Yes, I would have to say I do have regrets. At some stage in our lives we’ve all made decisions that we regret, but as the years go on, I try to look on the brighter side of things. And I try to get over those sinking feelings of why did I make that stupid decision.

Sometimes I use the old excuse, it’s fate. You can’t turn back the clock. Do we really know if we made the right decisions, apart from the obvious good versus evil?

I think one of my biggest regrets, says this person, is that I moved to a foreign country with my family. We thought it was the right decision at the time, and this was a very dramatic and trying time for the family. But I’m still fighting every day to make life as normal and comfortable as possible.

So they were a couple of the comments made on the question, if you were to die tomorrow, would you have any regrets, and then there was this comment, I found that interesting.

If I were to die tomorrow, I would not have any regrets. I’ve done many things that I’m not proud of, but I do not regret as such the things that have made me who I am today. I’m very happy with myself and in my skin.

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And I thought this is a very interesting comment. So I think it’s true that people all over the world are filled with regrets for many reasons.

I heard of one man who was unfaithful to his wife, and he said, I didn’t know why I did it. I wish I hadn’t, and I think about it all the time. And others regret not giving enough time to their children, and you know there are thousands of reasons.

There was a poem called, ‘I wish I could Start Over and Try Again‘, you know, I wish there was some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning again where all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all our poor selfish griefs could be cast aside like a shabby old coat at the door and never be put on again. I wish there was some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning again.

It was the famous Hollywood actress Katharine Hepburn who said, I have many regrets. I’m sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret. If you’ve got any sense, and if you don’t regret them, maybe you’re stupid. And Woody Allen, he said, My one regret in life is that I’m not someone else.

So what I’m saying here today is that regrets, in whatever form or shape they are, can in fact be very powerful things that take hold of your life.

No matter who you are, and when these feelings are there, they’re very strong, and you have these thoughts and these emotions that can just chip away at your life and if we’re not careful, can actually bring us down. So I want to suggest this morning that you take the Bible seriously and consider here what God says to you. And I think there’s a classic verse that really sums up the whole business, and that’s Psalm 90:12. In fact, this was a prayer from Moses, the great man Moses.

This was his prayer and I believe he tried to really do this. He said to God, teach us to use wisely all the time we have. That’s Psalm 90:12. Whilst that’s a very old statement from the Bible, it’s still very true today, and I think it’s a great thing. We realise how brief life really is, and it’s a prayer that asks God to teach us how to live without regret.

Max Luccardo, he wrote about living with regrets, he says, go the extra effort. Invest the time. Write the letter. Make the apology. Take the trip. Purchase the gift. Whatever you do, he says, do it. The seized opportunity gives great joy, but the neglected brings regret. How true that is.

Let’s Pray

Well, Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning, and we don’t really, Lord, listen to other people. We’re wanting to speak. Lord, help us to listen. Help us to understand that life is too short for regrets. And Lord, we just ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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