Living without Regret

We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." (Num. 13:30)

In Numbers 13, Moses sends twelve spies to explore the land of Canaan after they have been led out of Egypt. The spies were to evaluate the fruitfulness of the land and report on its inhabitants. The twelve returned carrying with them a single cluster of grapes so large that two of them had to carry it between them on a pole. Following is the paraphrased report from ten of those spies.

"Indeed, the land is exceedingly abundant. Here is its fruit. But, the people are giants and the cities have large walls. Let's just stay out here in the desert until we die. Better yet, let's return to Egypt where we were slaves."

But two of those spies, Joshua and Caleb, looked back on how God had led them out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea and provided abundantly for their needs in the desert - all with the promise of inheriting this land. They said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

In the end, the Israelites listened to the ten fearful spies rather than the two courageous ones. God was displeased so he directed that the entire generation die in the desert before he would allow their children to enter into the promised land. Only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the land from that generation.

I've wondered about how much regret the older generation must have endured over the next 40 years while waiting to die in the desert. They were standing on the precipice of God's abundance, but when the time came, they were afraid to take it. Jonathan Edwards, the famous 18th Century New England pastor, wrote 70 bold resolutions while in his early twenties. One of those reads, "Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die."

A motivating influence behind Fellowship of Memorial is our greater fear of regret than failure. Better to have tried and failed than to fail to try. Teddy Roosevelt put it like this in his famous quote: "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

We all have the choice to live a safe, secure and colorless existence, or to live with absolute abandon for the things which we know to be of ultimate value. The latter choice may cost you your reputation, your resources, even your life. Much worse however, is to reach the end of our lives with the regret of that generation of Israelites having been offered the promise but neglecting to enter in.