Healthy regret …

Sometimes pop culture can be fun.

Take, for example, the hit television show “American Idol.” Okay, yes, I admit … I’m a fan of the show. And yes … okay … alright! … I have even been known to text in a vote for a favorite singer! Hey we all have our flaws!

But like I said, sometimes pop culture can be fun.

And sometimes, it can be quite destructive.

Take for example the very, very popular maxim, “no regrets.”

What could be so bad about a little two-word motto? In fact, on the surface, it actually sounds like a great way to live life. Shouldn’t we live fully, doing the best we can, and have a life of no regrets? Sounds nice, but it doesn’t quite work that way in a broken world.

My concern is that this popular little pop culture motto has ingratiated its way into the minds of many who actually do apply the message to their lives. But here’s the problem: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23).

We all have had some time in our lives where something that came out of our mouths hurt someone else; that something we did, some action we took, harmed another person. For such things we should, indeed, regret our behavior. If we don’t, we pretty much have ice running through our veins.

We are imperfect people living in a broken world. We will have times in our lives where we have thoughts, say things, or act out in ways that we never should have … things that are regrettable. We and/or others would have been better off if we had not thought, felt, or acted the way we did. Those are regrets.

Even God has regrets! In fact, the mega regret ever had is probably one of God’s as recorded in Genesis 6. Take a read at this!

“The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and He saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke His heart,” Genesis 6:5-6.

In fact, God so regretted creating humankind that He completely wiped out all of humanity … except one family. God’s love for us, and grace toward us, was greater than His regret, and He spared a fellow named Noah and his family.

Talk about regret! If a perfect God who made a perfect creation can experience regret, how much more so for us broken humans?!

So the maxim “no regrets!” sounds nice, but isn’t realistic or even healthy for us, spiritually or emotionally. It’s important that we come to a place where we realize there have been times where we have really blown it and wish we wouldn’t have gone there.

Regret helps us get our values back in order. It helps us to dislike the sinful things we’ve done, and motivate us toward the way God would have us go.

The key is to not get “bogged down” in regrets, but to confess them, repent of them, and move on, leaving them behind buried in the forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ.

Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 7. He had sent a rather severe letter to the Corinthians addressing some issues with them. Initially, he regretted sending the letter because it hurt them, but when he saw the outcome of sending the letter, he no longer regretted his action because it had resulted in the Corinthians regretting their misbehavior and correcting it! 2 Corinthians 7:10 caps off this issue as Paul writes, “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.”

The pop culture maxim teaches us to not even have worldly sorrow … simply blow through life, do your thing, and if anyone gets hurt in the process, oh well. That is a life of no regret. But if we take a look at our lives, and are sorry (regret) for the sin we caused, that will lead to repentance and salvation … and for that kind of sorrow there really is no regret!

So regret can actually be a healthy thing for us … have a few! But then move on …

Scotty