Biggest Regret in Life

[Liberty]

Not sure where to post this topic...

This has been on my mind for a while now and would like to ask everyone.

What is your biggest regret in life ?

 

 

 

[Sower]

6 hours ago, Liberty said:

Not sure where to post this topic...

This has been on my mind for a while now and would like to ask everyone.

What is your biggest regret in life ?

 

 

 

Thought of many, but each one I realized God used to build upon my character as a future believer, being shaped to conform to His will.  Can't say I want to change His methods, but anticipate the end result. Any regret I can think of, if changed, would have changed who I am. As I know I am His, and striving to abide, I wouldn't want to change anything. Because I know, God is Light.

[Justin Adams]

Not sure if my biggest regret is yet to happen. I have past big regrets and no doubt future ones. However, most might agree that the current regret is perhaps the worst. And when that fades into history's annals, what of the next and the next?

I would like to think the biggest are behind me, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they loom on my horizon.

[Lolly]

My biggest regret is that I failed to stand for Christ

during an interview for entrance into Clinical Pastoral Education.

I was interviewed by a liberal rabbi and a liberal chaplain. The

rabbi asked me the question, "what would you do if a Jewish

person begged you to tell them about Jesus?" 

 

I had known that I would be unable to proselytize during this brief

period of time/education. However, I was unprepared for this

question. I had always relied upon the Holy Spirit for answers

when presented with a conundrum. None came. Thus, I 

stammered, "I think that is unlikely to happen."

 

Hence, instead of leaving immediately or offering words of 

loyalty to Jesus, I denied Him. I'll never forgive myself. Later,

I contacted the chaplain and told her to remove me from consideration.

I also gave up my dream of becoming a hospice chaplain. 

 

My goal had never been to be a pastor--I'm not really

comfortable with the idea of women in that role. However,

I had worked as a hospice nurse, and I had witnessed how

 people at end-of-life could not find help when they

reached out to the chaplains. Indeed, I saw lost persons

who were often tormented by demons as they approached death.

Some, would beg for help, but the liberal chaplains would pat

them on the head, and the doctors would prescribe more sedatives.

 

However, it was not God's plan for me. I ended up staying in 

school for another year, and I obtained a different degree. Now,

I work incognito. I find that very few are open to hearing about

Jesus these days. A decade ago, many wanted to hear the gospel.

 

Bottom line: We are to stand for Christ--even when it costs us

everything. I offered too little too late--a pinch of incense instead

of courage. What is sad is that I remained faithful all through school.

I stood strong when professors at the conservative Christian schools

I attended promoted syncretism. I stood strong when another told

the class to put aside "religion" and for the class to be more inclusive

of gender issues. The rabbi caught me off guard because I have such

love for the Jewish people and Hebrew roots of the faith. 

 

[GandalfTheWise]

9 minutes ago, Lolly said:

Hence, instead of leaving immediately or offering words of  loyalty to Jesus, I denied Him. I'll never forgive myself.

<thread derail start>

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”  He denied it, saying, “I am not.”   One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.  John 18:25-27.    

In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.  Matthew 26:55-57

The best among us have these moments.  From what you say, I do not think you failed out of fear or denial, but rather out of wisdom and experience and discernment how to navigate a "gotcha" question.  After what you shared here, I'm proud to call you a sister in Christ.  You seem like a spiritual woman with a lot of integrity.

<thread derail finish.  Back to the OP>

 

[GandalfTheWise]

My biggest regret is not knowing who God really made me to be until I was almost 50 years old.  I was a serious Christian from the time I was 12.  The problem was that I completely defined myself in terms of doing good Christian stuff and being a "good" Christian.  I defined and judged myself on how well I was using my gifts and talents and how much fruit I was bearing.  In my late 40s, God stuck me in front of a figurative mirror to look at myself and I had no clue who I was.  That unique person God had created and intended for me to be was completely hidden behind all the spiritual stuff I was so busy doing.

Over the next couple of years, God slowly brought to life the person He meant me to be.  My gifts and talents became tools instead of identity.  Love, compassion, ministry, and other things just started to flow naturally and bear more fruit than I'd seen before.   Sigh... where was this 25 years ago?  I leave that in God's hands as to whether I was just being too busy being a Christian to listen, whether it was partly the fault of the church emphasizing using gifts, talents, and bearing fruit as the goal of the life of all good Christians, or if God left me in that state for decades so that I'd be so intimately familiar with it that I can now help free people to become who He meant them to be.

I also came to realize that I had not lost that time.  I had largely given up on all of those callings and spiritual goals I felt were my purpose in life (in my late teens and 20s), and that I felt had fallen by the wayside because I had fallen short of them.  In the past few years, God has renewed them in my heart.  These were not goals to be achieved;  these were God's promises about what He planned on doing once He had taken a few decades to get me ready to start walking with Him as the unique person He meant me to be.

So, in one sense, this is a big regret.  In another sense, I chalk it up to the path God was steering me along.

A second regret (unrelated to the first one) is not having learned how to effectively teach myself new skills in life.  Over the years, I got better at it, but I lost a few decades of effective learning time.  In hindsight, if I knew in my 20s what I do now, I'd probably be functional in at least 4 or 5 foreign languages and a number of other skills.  I largely blame our western education system for indoctrinating me into the idea that formal courses with teachers and non-holistic learning was the only way to learn.

[Lolly]

Gandalfthewise,

What a beautiful testimony of God's presence and work throughout your life. I also 

appreciate your words of grace to me. Blessings.