Regrets.
One of the most painful, challenging, and life-altering realities in life.
The famous playwright’s sentiments have resonated most poignantly with me.
Especially concerning “the faith walk.”
Because, yes, “the faith walk” requires making weighty decisions. And sometimes, those decisions involve letting go, saying goodbye, leaving, and deciding that something or someone cannot walk where we walk IN our faith walk.
And that is painful.
That can feel like regret.
It can feel like the unfortunate, “no-win” situation we were placed in, or, sometimes, even, forced into.
We were occupying a moment, and we had to choose.
WHAT DID we choose?
What couldn’t- didn’t- wouldn’t- stay?
A relationship? A marriage? Children?
Family? Friends? A career? A dream?
Anything else that was important and meaningful to us?
It’s deeply personal. You can answer for yourself what that was for you.
Regrets.
It’s not easy.
And no one escapes… loss, now, DO they?
“Time and chance happen to us all.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11
How does that show up in your life?
What “time” are you in?
What “chance” has happened to you?
And we do have the reaction that we have TO whatever is happening in our lives.
Even being numb or apathetic is a reaction.
Whatever it is, it can make us fearful.
Resistant to change.
Struggling with grief and loss.
Because fear drives so much of our reaction.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment; and the one fearing has not been perfected in love.”
1 John 4:18
Fear involves torment.
We fear the reality of regret happening because of a choice we make.
We fear abandonment, loss, destruction, death.
We fear experiencing the exact life we do not want for ourselves.
We fear the unknown that comes WITH making that choice.
What leaves our lives, and can leave us, somehow, feeling “left behind.”
You have felt that before, many times, right?
Scripture has some pinprick hope TO that, however…
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My Name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”
Matthew 19:29
It may feel like cold comfort, like a painful consolation prize, defeat, failure, and death.
But there IS purpose to something ending: person, place, or thing.
NONE of it is in vain, no matter what it may be or feel like.
“Now when they were filled, He says to His disciples, ‘Gather together the fragments having superabounded, so that nothing may be lost.’”
John 6:12
What fragments need some gathering for you?
What “regrets” need some gathering for you?
Let’s pray.
Abba,
I come to You, through Our Shepherd.
Your only begotten Son, Our Savior, יֵשׁוּעַ.
You know what I am regretting; You know what I am fearing regret-wise.
You know what looks like death, loss, a mistake, a high price paid, and something I did not want to let go of.
You know exactly what that is, and how I am responding.
Forgive me.
You have seen me turn to sin and unhealthy choices that do not glorify You.
You know what “this” means to me.
You know what torment, fear, pain, and grief this has caused.
Help me to trust You, to let go, even of this, In Your Name.
You know what You have decided for me.
Help me to live in Your Will.
Help me to heal; comfort me.
Show me Your Purpose and Your Love.
Thank You.
Amen.
Copyright © 2026 by Sheryle Cruse
