Stop This One Regret in Your Life

I was watching this commercial from a travel agency and it was very intriguing. Maybe you have seen it? A man is walking through film sets and begins to speak “I doubt that when we look back in life we wish we would've gotten..." Then he begins to list stuff like a sports car, skinnier tv, a phone, etc. Then he asks the next question, “Do you think any of us will look back at our lives and regret the things we didn’t buy? Then he opens a door and you see an ocean and sunset. The punchline of the commercial, "or the places we didn’t go?” This was a travel agency trying to say, spend your money on an experience rather than stuff.

I find the questions he asked very helpful, and while one can argue that travelling is another “stuff” we can consume and spend money on, I see something spiritual in this commercial.

Life is not about the stuff we get, it’s about the experience. More specifically life is about relationships.

In particular our relationship with God and with people.

And in a culture that likes to define ourselves based on what we have and what we do, that is a counterintuitive statement.

What is it about stuff that makes us crave after them? I am not sure. But in North America, we are obsessed with it and maybe we need to change our perspective.

I am not the only one who feels that way. It’s like what one preacher said in his sermon, “I realize now that my kids didn't need or want more stuff, they wanted more of me”

That is the challenge many of us face. We might be so busy doing and getting stuff that we fail to make time for what matters in life - loving God and people.

As I get older in life, I realize that what King Solomon says about life is true - life is chasing after the wind. There are more important things to think about before I leave this earth than building houses, chasing pleasures, and doing whatever I please.

I have been blessed to see places and travel to many countries and I have noticed the same thing when I travel: whether the country is poor or rich, people are lost or are searching.

Instead of finding ways to get more stuff, I have this deep desire for others to get to know God and live a life filled with this love and grace.

I say to you today, stop this one regret in your life. Start living your life more from God’s view and not your or the world's view. Because when you do you will begin to finally live rather than living for stuff.

Because here is what is for sure, when we die, the one thing that won’t come with us is stuff.