it’s just a waste of time…

would you agree that there are many killjoys in life?  things that come into your life that rob you of joy and you need joy. you need joy in your life. 

it is not just some casual thing that it would be nice to have.  you have a fundamental emotional need for joy in your life.  life without joy is overwhelming.  life without joy is overburdened.  life without joy is oppressive. 

studies have actually shown that the more joy we have in our lives, the more productive we are.  it is true that you have more energy, more creativity, more productivity the more joy you have in your life. 

in a little book in the new testament called philippians we get some good insights into where to get joy.  one thing it says to do is to throw out all regrets about your past.  just throw them away, discard them.  discard means to get rid of something no longer wanted.

paul the writer of this book of philippians  says if you want to enjoy life, there are some things you’ve got to chuck.  there are some things you’ve got to get rid of.  there are some things you’ve got to throw overboard in your life because they are wearing you down and they are overburdening your life.

now we all have regrets don’t we? everybody’s got skeletons in their closet because nobody’s perfect. 

sir arthur coyan doyle who wrote the sherlock holmes series decided to play a prank on some very important people in england so he sent an anonymous note to eight prominent men in england that said, “all is found out, flee at once.”  he just wanted to see what would happen and in 24-hours all eight men had left the country.

we all have regrets.  the only problem with regret is, it doesn’t work.  it cannot change your past so it just makes you miserable and we get stuck in the land of “if only’s”  if only i could redo my life, if only i could change things, if only i could relive that part, if only i could resolve things differently and make different decisions. 

but you can’t.  so it’s not going to change by regretting.  regretting is just a waste of time.

just a thought from the front porch…