Live Your Life with Regrets

I saw a motivational poster recently that said, “Live your life with no regrets.” My first thought was that this was a good message, and I said to myself, “I have no regrets.”

But that feeling didn’t last too long. I thought back on some of the things I’ve done. I’ve treated people who love me poorly; I’ve been mean and unkind to people who didn’t deserve it. I’ve done and thought things that the Lord and I both know are wrong. I have regrets; quite a few.

I don’t want to demean the intentions of those who subscribe to the “No regrets” philosophy. I understand how regret and guilt can be paralyzing and harmful to personal growth. However, I know I never could have ever repented of anything without regretting it first. Regret is the sting of conscience pointing to repentence, and without repentance there is no hope.

I have no regrets about choices I have made; not even taking statistics in college. I take that back—I do regret watching Adam Sandler’s Punch Drunk Love. Life choices are “learning experiences” from which one can learn, and which no one should regret (unless you paid good money to see that movie). My regrets come from my acting on my sin nature, or my inner scumbag, as I call it, and then realizing what I’ve done.

I even regret that I have these regrets, but I don’t know how to change either that, or the regrets themselves. In a weird way I almost appreciate the regrets, because from them I have learned two things:
- I am forgiven and grace abounds
- With the Lord’s help I can change and have
So if I had never sinned I would never have grown.

I am starting to believe that one can live without regrets only if he is perfect or so out of touch with his nature that he is delusional.

So if you have regrets, be grateful. You have a conscience.