On Regrets

We had a discussion last night about how one can go about avoiding the piling up of regrets. It's an interesting topic, because the thought of how a choice affects our futures certainly has bearing on what choice we make. However, I'm convinced that it does us no good to dwell on the things that could go wrong with a decision.

My point of view is that no matter what decision we make, there could be negative consequences. The only way to avoid any possible risk of bad stuff happening because of a decision we make is to avoid making any decisions at all. But that is not at all the way to go about it.

Take, for instance, the parable about the talents. The two guys that doubled their share of the master's money clearly took risks with it. While it worked out for them, I'm sure their investments could have gone very poorly. However, they were rewarded for taking the risk. The third guy, however, puts his talent in the ground and then returned it intact to his master. He was afraid of the consequences should he lose the talent before his master returned. So he avoided making any decisions with it and ended up facing the wrath of his master anyway... but for cowardice.

We could look at a decision and say that both options have the potential to turn out badly. We'd reach the end of our lives and not have to regret the things we did. But more devistating than that, I have no doubt that we'd end up regretting the things we could have done, but never took the chance to do.

This doesn't mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that we should just jump headlong and make decisions willy-nilly. NO! Consider your options. Balance them against God's Word. But when one or two options come to the fore, don't be afraid of them. Go boldly into a decision with the knowledge that God's Grace will cover you. Sure, things could go badly sometimes, but when they go well you won't have the regret of not having taken the chance.