No Regrets
There was no mention made of the stuff we often spend our lives chasing. That’s what palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware discovered as she sat with the dying. She intentionally questioned them: “Would you do anything differently if you could do it again?” Common themes surfaced, and she compiled a list of the top five regrets of the dying: (1) I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself. (2) I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. (3) I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. (4) I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. And (5) I wish I’d let myself be happier.
Ware’s list brings to mind the parable Jesus tells in Luke 12. A rich man decides to build bigger barns to store his great harvest, after which he tells himself he’ll retire in style, sit back and relax, and live until he dies (vv. 18-19). But in that moment, God demands his life with a rather harsh address: “You fool!”—followed by a haunting question: in essence, “And what will become of all your stuff?” (v. 20).
Is it possible to die with zero regrets? That’s hard to know for certain. But what we do know is clearly expressed in Scripture—storing up stuff for ourselves is a dead end. True riches come from a life invested in God.
By John Blase - Bread Ministries
Luke 12:13-21 (NIV)
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
