No Regrets

I watched a skit once with this title, it was full of music, singing and dancing college seniors. It was a well-prepared presentation, powerful and touching story, and I think, overall a good message. I won't spoil it for you in the event you want to watch it. The whole production is called G-Live, the specific skit if you haven't surmised already is called "No Regrets". Which got me thinking about a question that perhaps a lot of us ask, which is, "What would I do over?" A lot of times I have wished that I could do entire parts of life over again, or maybe go back in time with my current knowledge, which sounds ideal, and really cool, but having watched enough science fiction to know about creating a space-time paradox or alternate unstable timeline, and all that random pseudo-science (or maybe real science, I don't know the difference) type jargon.

Historically Relevant

I am a pretty big NBA fan. I mean, I can list off stats, such as the fact that only three teams hold 15 of the last 21 NBA championship titles (Chicago Bulls 6, Los Angeles Lakers 5, San Antonio Spurs 4), but while that is an interesting bit of trivia, what does that really mean to me? In other words, how does that impact what I do day-in and day-out? In short, so what? Maybe it would mean more to me if I were directly involved in the NBA, such as working in a franchise front office or somehow working for a team, because then I might see how I might emulate the success of these three teams. However, as the casual fan, other than as pieces of interesting (or random depending on your perspective) trivia, it doesn't really affect what I do or how I live.

What about when it comes to something bigger? I recently finished the book The Case for Christ by journalist Lee Strobel, and realized that behind all of the apologetics, the facts, the history, this question needs to be addressed: so what? Having the privilege of serving as a youth leader this past year I realized both the import and the challenge in addressing this question, particularly with young people of today (it makes me sound kind of old, but I suppose I mean this term in a general sense, and perhaps to some degree include myself in it). So behind all of this historical evidence for Jesus what impact does it have for me in my life? Should it have one? I believe the answer is yes.

A Lack of Discernment

I don't know about you, but I have spent a lot of time agonizing over the idea of what God's will is. What is God's will in my life? There are numerous verses in the Bible that give us an indication of what God desires for us in essence, wills, for us, but again the question comes out, what does that look like specifically? Is it God's will that I take this job or that one? That I go to this church or that one? That I marry this person or that one? I can't count the number of times in life where I have been idle, sitting around "trying to figure out God's will". Don't get me wrong, it's important to know and to do God's will, as Jesus says in Mark 3:35 doing God's will is how we demonstrate that we are of his family. Yet I suppose that begs the question as to what God's will exactly is. How can I do something that I don't know?