While shopping energizes my wife, it tends to often drain me.  Part of the reason is I’m such a “buyers remorse” person.  Maybe because I’m such a perfectionist.  Perhaps because I hate to live with regrets — even little ones.

Last night at Walmart I was looking for an outdoor floodlight for our house.  And of course I faced the usual multitude of choices.  Do I buy the one year bulb?  The two year bulb?  The one pack?  Two pack?  75 watts?  100 watts?

I finally opted for the 100 watt two pack, went home to replace the one bulb outside our garage and found out that the bulb takes 75 watt bulbs.  So, back to Walmart I’ll go to fight the Christmas crowds and stand forever in the Customer Service so I can exchange a light bulb.

I hate regrets.  Most of mine are minor and can often be fixed with a quick trip to the store.  Others have been major and weren’t so easily repaired.  I remember when Susan and I were in Memphis working and attending graduate school.  She had a little Datsun 210 which ran fine.  But I wanted to buy another Volvo.  And a friend in school who bought and sold cars found me a used, goldish color Volvo.   Friends at church used to call it “Color Mustard.”  While it was fun to drive, it tended to break down quite a bit.  I had to mentally place that purchase away in the regrets file.

What can we do about avoiding regrets and living with the ones we already have?  While walking into my workplace today, I thought about what I read a few minutes earlier in 1 John.  Over and over the beloved apostle tells us to focus on Jesus, believe in Him, and love others as Christ sacrificially loved us on the cross.  I noticed that two years ago I had written in the column next to this verse these words, “Lord, please express Your love through me.”

It seems to me that one of the best “regret busters” is to be about loving folks all day.  To not think about our needs but instead tend to the concerns and cares of others.  Looking back on my life, when I think of the ways God loved others through me — through a phone call, writing a note, listening to someone struggling, praying over a brother in Christ in distress — I will never regret those moments.  I wasn’t the hero — but rather I just made myself available to the Holy Spirit and let Him work through me to love the world as God loves the world.

And when I do make mistakes, say things I shouldn’t have, and make sinful choices, I can continue fall on the mercy of Jesus and realize that in spite of my sin, I am still deeply loved by Him.  And affirm that truth that He can use me regardless of my imperfect choices.  If I keep that truth before me, and continue to follow Jesus as His Spirit leads me each day, living a life of agape love, then that’s a life I’ll never regret.

Jim