Living Without Regret

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8 (New International Version)


Choices, choices, choices. They line the grocery store shelves, flash at us in commercials, and gleam on billboard signs along the road. Humans have always had to deal with choices, but they are multiplying at an incredible speed. I imagine a path in the forest. There have always been forks in the road, but we no longer see a single division in the path. More, as my friend described it, we see “a labyrinth of complexity.”

With each choice, there is the danger of regret. The “what if” haunts us down the path and we wonder as the path splits again if we should have taken the other way. Like a child who tries to read the “make your own choices” book in a hundred different ways to see the different endings, we try to keep all our doors open, not living life at all. We try to avoid regret by making all the “right” choices. I wonder if this is an example of falling into “hollow and deceptive philosophy” (Col 2:8). It makes sense, it sounds right, but to the Christian something doesn’t “feel” right.

I’m done with regret. Life is not a fork in the path, nor is it a labyrinth of complexity—all that is a mirage. It is a grand lie that our minds create when we think we are in charge. When we let the false lens fall away from our eyes, we see that there really is only one way to go. True regret only results when we don’t follow the One who can show us where to go. He may not use a path at all, but take us through the brush and over creeks to teach us what He wants us to learn.

To a Christian, this rings true. One path, one way. We know Who is the way, but we have not learned to follow Him. When we do learn, making a choice will be just another step following our Lord. The haunting questions of “what if” will not linger down the road because the road not taken is not the road for us.

Dear Lord, help me learn to follow you one step at a time. Make joy the spring in my step, faith the strength in my legs, and love the determination in my devotion to You. I love you.