We're All Guilty We second guess ourselves. That purchase we made last week, that agreement we signed a few months back, that job we took for granted and decided to seek supposedly other, grander opportunities.
Looking back we can see where we made choices and wonder if we would have been better off choosing a different path. We all do it. Some were smaller decisions, others were life changing. The fact is that we’ll never know and we're left with playing those mind games of “what if’s”. We’re human, error-prone, with imperfect judgements, and miles short of perfect knowledge. So we learn to live with it. Hopefully without too much regret. I believe King Solomon, celebrated as the wisest man in the Bible, squandered his gift and in his final days was full of regrets, hence he wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, and truer words were never written: “What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow. All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing. What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Everything is futile! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.” Solomon wrote much of the book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, the book of Ecclesiastes, and two psalms. Are any of us really smarter than Solomon? Solomon's downfall began when he married the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh to seal a political alliance he thought was necessary. But in truth, he just simply could not control his lust. He was in position to have anything and everything his eyes desired, and eventually collected for himself 700 wives and 300 concubines. The inevitable happened. They lured King Solomon to turn away from Yahweh into a pretentious life of worshipping himself, and false gods and idols. Over his 40-year reign, Solomon did many great things, but he had succumbed to the temptations of the degradations of lesser and obsessive/compulsive men. The peace of a united Israel, the massive building projects he headed, and the successful commerce he developed all became meaningless when Solomon turned from God. Avoid Regrets. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-5
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