What Will It Be?
When you get to the end of your life, what do you think your most prevailing regret will be?
It took one of the most honest sentences from the lips of an old man to let me know what mine is not going to be.
I was reading the book, Steel in My Soul, the biography of one of my personal heroes in the faith, Dick Hillis, a pioneer missionary and founder of Overseas Crusades. He was in his eighties when he admitted his life-regret to an auditorium full of Overseas Crusades missionaries who came to hear what their venerated founder had to say.
“I didn’t love enough.”
What started as an insight into Dick Hillis’s life echoed in my own heart and mind. When I tried to read on, God’s Spirit stopped me. “Don’t read on, Ed. Pause and think about your own life. Pick up your journal and record what I’m saying to you.”
The words poured from my heart onto the page. “Oh Lord, how many times did Dick Hillis miss an opportunity to love his wife, his children, or his friends and justify it because of the pressures of his day? I bet he was making the same excuses I make when he decided not to love, but instead, to do!”
“I have to get ready for this important meeting. You’ll just have to wait.”
“Sorry, I wish I could talk right now, but I have to study.”
“You can’t expect me to take time for this, souls are at stake here!”
I don’t want to say that!
That was the day I decided that if God let me live to 80, I wouldn’t have reason to say, “I didn’t love enough.”
I still regress some. Well, actually, I regress a lot…though, usually it’s only in my thinking and planning. Thankfully, my heart is now more predisposed to God’s Spirit who breaks through with this reminder, “Keep it up, Ed. And you’ll regret it. You’re not too busy to love. You’re never too busy to love. The pressures and busyness that keep you from taking the time to love Judy, your kids, your grandkids, and friends isn’t coming from Me—it’s your own issue. It’s coming from a sick place in your own heart.”
What excuses are you offering to the ones God has called you to love? Too busy? Too overwhelmed? Too important? Too tired? Too…what??
Stop, before it’s too late.
Stop thinking that way before it’s too late. Before you, like Dick Hillis, will have to admit your life regret with tears in your eyes, “I didn’t love enough.”
Who are the special people in your life you need to love more? My encouragement to you (and reminder to myself!), is to stop making excuses and start “loving enough” today.
“Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8).
