Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, September 15, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
That’s powerful. Think about it. A few short chapters prior to this, God looked upon all God had made—especially those beloved humans created in God’s image—and proclaimed them “very good.” And already, humans had made such a mess of their civilization—starting with Cain’s murder of Abel, I imagine—that God is questioning the wisdom of having created humanity in the first place. The disappointment is palpable—God grieved the creation of humans, or of their utter failure to remember the beautiful communion God had called them into.
Everyone experiences regret at times in their lives. We look back on decisions we made or didn’t make which may have seemed like the absolutely right things to do at the time, and when we see how nothing has turned out the way we originally thought or hoped or predicted, we are sent into a tailspin of self-recrimination or anger at God. We spent decades in dysfunctional relationships, having convinced ourselves it was genuine love. We took jobs that seemed to be the perfect fit at the perfect time only to find ourselves miserable. We invested incalculable time and energy into a business that had everything going for it only to watch it slowly fail. These things and countless others are simply part of the human experience. It should give us comfort to know that God, too, experienced this kind of regret. The good news is that God had and has the power to transform even the most bleak and hopeless-seeming circumstances into opportunities for indescribable joy, satisfaction, meaning, purpose and, yes, healing from regret.
Are there decisions I have made or not made in my life that I have regretted? How have I moved past my regret?
