There are two kinds of NO REGRETS living.
- A young, 25-year-old missionary hopeful named William Borden lay dying in Egypt. Many said he had “thrown away his life,” having left the family business and his inherited millions to take the Gospel to the Muslim Kansu people of China. But he never made it to China. Just three months after his departure, while studying Arabic on his way to China, he contracted spinal meningitis. He died a month later. A waste? Not according to William Borden. As he lay dying, he wrote these words in his Bible: “No regrets.”
- A certain wicked king named Jehoram brought a lot of trouble to God’s people in Judah. He did not follow his fathers’ example of righteousness. He stiffened his neck and refused Elijah’s prophetic rebuke – so the Lord disciplined him with a painful and incurable disease. But there’s more. His entire family was taken captive; and under him the neighboring nations plundered and pillaged the land. Everyone paid a price because Jehoram refused to yield his heart and life to God. He reigned only eight years before he died, in great pain, and – here’s the kicker – he “departed with no one’s regret.” They buried him, “but not in the tombs of the kings; they made no fire in his honor as they had for his fathers.”1
I think we must regularly ask ourselves, “Which type of NO REGRETS living characterizes me?” Is it that of William Borden? or Jehoram?
O Father, grant me the desire and strength to live in such a way that (a) I have no regrets before You at my departure, (b) You have no regrets at my arrival in Your presence, and (c) those I leave here regret my absence because something of the aroma of You is missing.
1 Jehoram’s miserable life is well worth the brief read in 2 Chronicles 21.