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.




Even beyond that though, the whole concept of me going back and changing one thing that may change a slew of things now, which is kind of an alien concept to me as it's pretty hard to imagine any reality other than the one you've experienced so far. That being said, when I think about what I would change, it seems pretty silly. I sometimes wish I could have taken more AP classes in high school, or studied harder, or practiced piano more, and where would that have gotten me? Maybe to a better school, a more impressive resume, some more impressive social skills to show off at parties. In the end though, does that really make a difference? I guess part of it comes to the question of what the purpose or meaning of life is. What is purposeful? What is meaningful? When I look back at these things, I may have perhaps in this world a more "successful" or perchance, even "meaningful" life, at least by the standards of society today. However, is that what I am seeking? Am I simply yearning for worldly acclaim?

In my second time through the skit, I started thinking about if I had regrets and what things I perhaps had regrets about. It was something that I had thought about fairly often if I'm honest with myself. I can tell myself that I perceive things in the realm of possibilities and thus was always intrigued by the "what if"s of life, but in reality, there are some things I do very much regret doing, and often wonder how things would have been different had I been able to go back and "do things right". I suppose that part of growing up and maturing is realizing how stupid I was when I was younger. Then something sort of hit me while I was going through my normal musings. Would any of these things I wanted to go back and change have changed my need for the blood of Christ?

The answer obviously is no. No matter what I would have gone back and changed, it would not have made me any more "perfect". At least not perfect in the way that I need to be. Couple this with my pseudo-science time paradox ideas from too much science fiction television, and I realized that, it's entirely possible that if I had become more accomplished in any aspect of my life, it would have led me away rather than towards Christ. Not to say that this is an excuse or condoning of my previously bad behavior. It doesn't excuse it at all. However it doesn't change that the series of events called my life thus far, has led me to where I am spiritually, which is, however much still a work-in-progress, a child of God.

Ultimately, I realize that it is no use continually dwelling in the past, but rather this insight ought to be an encouragement to continue to keep God's perspective in mind and not do anything that may cause these musings of regret when the time has passed.