During
summer training camp, the coaches on one football team wore T-shirts intended
to urge their players to exert maximum effort. The shirts bore the motto, “Each
day you must choose: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” Discipline
is tough—and something we may try to avoid. But in sports and in life,
short-term pain is often the only path to long-term gain. In the heat of battle
it is too late to prepare. Either you are ready for the challenges of life or
you will be haunted by the “what ifs,” “if onlys,” and “I should’ves” that
accompany the failure to be prepared. That’s the pain of regret.
One
source defines regret as “an intelligent and emotional dislike for
personal past acts and behaviors.” It’s painful to look back at our choices
through the lens of regret and feel the weight of our failures. This was the
case for the psalmist. After a personal episode of sin and failure, he wrote,
“Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy
shall surround him” (Ps 32:10). In the clarity of hindsight, he saw the wisdom
of a life that strives to honor the Lord—a life that does not need to be marked
by regret.
May our choices today not result in regret, but rather be wise and God-honoring.
