March 21 – “Reverse Regret”

Sunday morning was a good one for us.  We got to be in church with some great friends.  It was especially sweet because Cailyn and her Mom and Dad came.  It's always fun to hear that not always so faint cry of "DadDad" when I'm speaking at the front of the group.  I say let her come on up and see me.   After church and after watching some of the NCAA basketball game (Duke won a squeaker.  I know because I woke up when there was about three minutes left in the game), I went out to the front yard to resume pulling weeds from the lawn.  The Weed 'n' Feed nailed a lot of the offending evilness, but there are still a lot of stragglers that refuse to let go.  They don't seem to understand that they have already been defeated.  Kind of like the demons.  God has already won the war but they refuse to give up these little battles.    Sitting around on the grass by myself gave me a lot of time to think.  Always a dangerous situation, I know.  And after waving to yet another car that passed by, a thought struck me.  "What if that person had stopped and asked me a question – any question – would I have been able to answer it and not sound stupid?"  Now that person didn't stop.  In fact, that one in particular never even looked my direction to see the wave.  But it was a question I began to ponder.    Now there have been many occasions when I did have the opportunity to talk to someone who had questions.  "How do you get to WalMart?"  "Where do locals eat seafood?"  "What is the square root of 7,693?"  OK, no one has ever asked me that one, but it would be fun if they did.  I have no idea what the answer is, but it would be fun to throw out a wild guess and pretend like it was right.  And there have certainly been times when I have been asked a question and have not been able to answer for whatever reason.  Most of the time the reason has something to do with my not being able to hear.  Well, actually I can hear the noise, but sometimes it just sounds like noise, and I can't get it processed in time to give a reasonable answer.  At least not at the time they asked.  I can usually come up with something later on.  "Oh, I should have said …"  That's the Regret Game.  Not much fun.   But that's not what I did out there on the grass yesterday.  I began playing the "Reverse Regret" game, and I got stuck in that mode for way longer than I intended.  I came up with all kinds of reverse regrets.  Every car that drove past was a target.  What if that person stopped and got out with a gun?  Would I know what to do?  What if that person was a secret millionaire (Have you seen that new show yet?  Millionaires go under cover and volunteer for service organizations, then return and give them substantial donations) and handed me a check for a few thousand dollars?  What would I say?  What would I do with it?  What if that person asked how to become a Christian?  What if …   Reverse Regret.  It's a lot more fun than Regular Regret.    Isaiah 58:11 says, "The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."   Father, it's almost summer here, so we'll be needing some of that need-satisfying on our sun-scorched island.  Amen.