Day of regret. Or hope!

There will probably come a day for each one of us when we look back.  We'll wonder how we could have been so shallow, so callous to those around us and so uninformed about ourselves.

We should have known.  We had good examples here and there, but we went with our feelings more often than not.  Or we went with the crowd without any worry at all.  And we didn't know; we didn't learn.

Regret would crush us or drive us nuts, it seems, if there were no way out.

The EXIT.  It has to be real, not just wishful or religious.

There is hope; we can learn.  Acknowledging it all and asking forgiveness of those whom we've harmed, repairing the damage where we can.  Learning and turning away from our selfishness and self-centeredness.  Repentance, forgiveness, salvation: all words that describe that for which we hope with a longing that cannot be satisfied short of something real.

Is repentance 'something real' that helps?  It's unlikely that just church membership or ritual that will change us.  Or insulation from real life things.  Or just someone else's nice words telling us that it's OK now.

Perhaps our hope is to find that fire and walk through it.  To emerge cleansed somehow; changed.  Maybe life's real pathway is that fire walk.  If there's no change, it wasn't real.  If my heart isn't undone and remade, I'm the same dirtball I was before.

Repentance, then forgiveness.  And salvation?  The real thing?  Does it really work?

Yes.  And we knew it all along, didn't we.


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I was watching the movie Deep Impact.  As the world watched an approaching comet that would bring things to an end, folks quickly changed priorities.  Or went nuts.

The important part though, most saw their lives clearly. Some saw their lives and regretted it all, some went back to the one important relationship, and many labored to help even at the cost of their own lives.  I don't tear up for movies.  Usually.

And I'm reminded.  There is a way ... that's good news for us all.