A coming hour

How do we learn to live with regrets apart from bitterness? Especially if we feel as if we’ve somehow missed God’s plan or intentions for our lives. When the calendar turns over to a new year, we often find ourselves looking back with a measure of regret. We try to muster up excitement at a fresh start, whether it’s with a blank planner or a new reading list. But deep down, we know that clearing out our homes or starting a new exercise regime won’t take away the sting of the moments we wish we could take back. Or the decisions still marked by doubt.

Most of my Bible reading in 2019 was going through the four gospels over and over. A few mornings ago, as I was reading in the gospel of John, I was reminded of the profound ways of Jesus with people. He was often associating with the least, the unexpectant, the undemanding. If ever someone was living in the midst of if-onlys and what-ifs, it was those who Jesus ministered to with words of penetrating knowingness and acts of healing. With the promise of an hour yet coming, Jesus silenced their regrets, second-guessing, and dark edges of introspection.

When I was younger my only category for this coming hour was dread. Seeing one of those end times movies as a child, with people waking up to missing spouses and siblings, I assumed Christ’s second coming was something to be feared. However, in the context of scripture we see that it’s not only meant to serve as a call to repentance, but as a promise — a source of reassurance and comfort to those enduring with hope in a sin-cursed world.

How can we learn to engage our regrets as an opportunity to see God’s hand in increasing our faith? By looking toward that hour. The coming hour when all will be set right, when the lack of my faith will be filled. When the lingering pangs of what might have been will be forgotten because of the reality of Who has come.