regret…

Someone else’s right choices… can stir up regret… over our past wrong…

I struggled with some this week… regret that is… and even took it out on someone else… blindsided them in a conversation… with stirred up words…

These were not pilgrim words forged in the practice of silence… they were wounded words from an unhealed heart… one with regrets…

On reflection… I’m moved to consider… regret…

regret noun… sorrow aroused by circumstances beyond one’s control or power to repair…

–Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed,)

And there’s the rub… sad circumstances beyond our power to repair… regret…

Most of our regret revolves around the past… totally out of our power to repair… fix… change…

That’s where my regrets lie… in the unchangeable past…

But by faith I have to factor in the One who is Faithful and True… the One who redeems even the worst regret… the One who restores what’s sin-full and makes it grace-full… the One who has power to repair…

I wonder if Believers should ever have regrets… for to regret is to question our Sovereign God who brought us to a place of believing faith… who allowed us the free will to choose along the way… who has power to take the bad we regret… and work it for good…

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 NIV

Regret… a faith-less word… one I may need to remove from my vocabulary… allow Him to root it from my heart… with His redeeming grace…

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits — who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:2-5 NIV84