Did I Do That?

You've had the conversation.  You know, someone asks you what your regrets in life are.  Chances are this question either dive bombs straight into a heart-to-heart or you quickly say, "I don't have any," and you sit in awkward silence until someone can think of a new topic.

The latter has always been true for me.  I'm always the one to say, "I don't have any regrets. It happened, it's over, I moved on." What about you?  Do you dwell on actions you either deliberately or unintentionally made that didn't turn out so hot?  Do you, like me, scoff at the idea of having regrets because that clearly means you actually screwed up?  Obviously, I'm perfect, so I'm gonna cling to that "No Regrets" reply until my fingers go numb.

On two separate occasions this morning, I was shown that while my answer to the question isn't necessarily wrong, it's grounded in an incorrect and selfish ideology.  Take note:

"I have no regrets because everything I did made me who I am today. I made those choices, I'm alive, I'm a pretty good person now."

Then, there's the other camp that's equally wrong:

"I have plenty of regrets because I feel badly about the things I've done and I wish I never would have made those choices.  It hurts me to think I did those things and sometimes those regrets impact my life today."

Lots of personal pronouns in there.  We tend to think of our past and our actions in light of how they impacted us.  Certainly, there are times when our actions hurt others, but whether we regret or stand by those actions, that stance in grounded in how that makes us feel in the long run.  Whether you choose to believe it or not, that shame, that guilt, is sin rearing its head to get at us.  But sin, y'all, isn't just something that happens, it's something that actively separates us from the only One who can redeem.  When we selfishly view that sin, we lose sight of how it has impacted our relationship with Christ, and we end up with the two viewpoints.

On one hand, the sin/action happened, but it ultimately contributed to the "better" person today.  This validates sin in a way that is really scary.  Here, it is because of sin that we are better or stronger people. We must refuse to give sin that power. Its Christ redemption interrupting that sin that saved us from being consumed by it.  By giving sin the power to "make us better," Christ becomes nothing more than an excuse for people to use to call themselves Christians.  You've met this person. You may be this person.

On the other hand, sin dwells and actively eats away at the conscience, to prevent a person from forgiving himself and others.  With this mindset, sin plays its well-known role, in that it prevents us from healing and turning to Christ's love, which opens the doors to freedom.  Here, we totally miss the concept of redemption.  We allow a sin, a (sometimes single) action, to convince us we are not worth a full measure of love and forgiveness and again, we are separated from Christ.

So now school circle, around me.  We have two viewings of our actions (sins), one of which tells us sin actually makes us better, stronger people in the long run, and one of which suggests we must always remember those sins because they were terrible and we shouldn't ever do them again.  So now, enter Christ and enter redemption.

When we feel bad about the things we do, that's called conviction and it's God's way of exposing our shortcomings to us.  What we fail to realize is when we claim responsibility for conquering sins, we don't really heal.  We end up hardened and proud, rather than humbled by our faults.  Christ, y'all, is the reason we can recognize those sins and grow, not out of those sins, but out of Christ's love.  When we hold onto our sins because we feel guilty about letting them go, we miss redemption. Our Creator so longs for us to experience freedom from all that junk, he paid a huge price for it.

And please, for the love of all that is good, realize no amount of action, either good or bad, can get you into or out of Eternity.  Actions of this world remain in this world.  That change of heart, that conviction and mercy, is what gets us where we want to go.  For those who have been judged by Christians for your lifestyle, your actions, or even rumors about your actions, I am so incredibly sorry.  What's cool about Christ is the moment we truly recognize those sins before Him, he asks, "What sin," and moves forward.

Love keeps no record of wrongs.  Your actions, both good and bad, hold no weight in your redemption. It's Christ's love, his heart, his sacrifice that justifies your salvation. So let's restructure our regret sentence with a little help.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23

"He sent redemption to his people.  He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name!" Psalm 111:9

"He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteous, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior." Titus 3:5-6    

We all sin.  God loves us and has promised redemption and he's good on his word.  Nothing we can do can get us to Heaven or condemn us to Hell, because Jesus, quite literally, paid it all. Therefore, I know I have sinned, but God's love and forgiveness has helped me recognize it and through him, I have grown and learned to love. For you pessimists, this sounds like a too-good-to-be-true, give me a break, fantasy idea. That's the magnitude of it all. We (understandably) don't comprehend and can't conceptualize that kind of love and forgiveness. Take heart in the fact that we are not condemned to a life of regret, but we are welcomed to redemption and freedom in a full, joyous life God has for us.