The philosopher Rene Descartes famously wrote, “I think therefore I am.” But, perhaps, we might also say: I regret, therefore I am. Even God, according to the Hebrew Bible, lived with regrets, the most famous (but not the only time God regrets something) being, “And the Lord regretted that he had made humanity.” (Genesis 6:6)
There are different types of regret. There is the regret of commission and the regret of omission. The former type of regret stems from hurting something, either emotionally or physically. The latter type of regret is born from not seizing an opportunity.
Sometime back a hospice worker named Bonnie Ware wrote an interesting article called the “Top Five Regrets of the Dying.” Those regrets are:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I’d let myself be happier.
If you read the regrets closely, you noticed that only one of the regrets, number 2, is a regret of commission. The remaining four are regrets of omission. Or, in other words, the regrets of the dying have more do with what they didn’t do than what they did do.
It is possible to re-word the 5 regrets to read as either regrets of commission or omission. Be that as it may, the above list was authored by dying people. And dying people, from my personal experience, don’t mince words. They mean what they say and say what they mean. When death is imminent, life takes on linguistic clarity.
All of us have regrets—more or less. One significant regret that I have is not being more patient with my son during the first four years of his life. At that time I was wrapped up in doctoral work. The stress of my studies accompanied with working full time in a church often left me with little patience.
In most instances, life allows u-turns. In all instances, God allows u-turns. The Quran, like the New Testament, suggests that when regret becomes repentance God, like a loving parent, runs out to meet the repentant one.
While we can never erase painful moments of our past, we can amend our lives, with the help of God’s grace, so the future looks less like the past and more like the life of our dreams.
Mark Twain once quipped, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
So I ask you, dear reader: How might you change your life so that when your dying moment arrives your regrets are fewer than they might have been?
There are different types of regret. There is the regret of commission and the regret of omission. The former type of regret stems from hurting something, either emotionally or physically. The latter type of regret is born from not seizing an opportunity.
Sometime back a hospice worker named Bonnie Ware wrote an interesting article called the “Top Five Regrets of the Dying.” Those regrets are:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I’d let myself be happier.
If you read the regrets closely, you noticed that only one of the regrets, number 2, is a regret of commission. The remaining four are regrets of omission. Or, in other words, the regrets of the dying have more do with what they didn’t do than what they did do.
It is possible to re-word the 5 regrets to read as either regrets of commission or omission. Be that as it may, the above list was authored by dying people. And dying people, from my personal experience, don’t mince words. They mean what they say and say what they mean. When death is imminent, life takes on linguistic clarity.
All of us have regrets—more or less. One significant regret that I have is not being more patient with my son during the first four years of his life. At that time I was wrapped up in doctoral work. The stress of my studies accompanied with working full time in a church often left me with little patience.
In most instances, life allows u-turns. In all instances, God allows u-turns. The Quran, like the New Testament, suggests that when regret becomes repentance God, like a loving parent, runs out to meet the repentant one.
While we can never erase painful moments of our past, we can amend our lives, with the help of God’s grace, so the future looks less like the past and more like the life of our dreams.
Mark Twain once quipped, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
So I ask you, dear reader: How might you change your life so that when your dying moment arrives your regrets are fewer than they might have been?
