May 11, 2021

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

I raise an eyebrow when someone says “I have no regrets.” It seems to me that only a sociopath could have no regrets in this life.

Here’s Garrison Keillor, now 78, on regret and guilt. “I carry plenty of guilt around. I am not smug about guilt. I have to joke about it, for my own mental health, but I carry masses of regret…. I have a picture of my ancestors standing in front of their Minnesota farmhouse, which years later caught fire and burned down. My dad was eight years old and watched it burn from the schoolhouse across the road. He remembered his father raking through the ashes, looking for photographs, in grief, knowing the fire was his fault because he had postponed cleaning the chimney. That poor man is very much in my memory and I know how he feels.”

I take comfort in the assurance that God has removed our guilt from us through the cross of Christ. Indeed, He is our refuge.

“Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, grant you to be strengthened with might by his Holy Spirit, that, Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith, you may be filled with the fullness of God. Amen” (Holy Baptism – BCP p. 311)