As each of us lose a loved one, we are tempted to pick up those stones of regrets from the ground and store them in our backpacks. As we grow older those backpacks get heavier. God has a better way.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Has Reverend Billy Graham made a huge impact on your life? I know it has for my mom and dad who both attended many Billy Graham crusades long before I ever did. The seed that was planted when we accept Jesus into our hearts takes time for it to grow--sometimes we do not know the impact until our faith has been tested. I look at both of their lives and I see losses so large I wondered how they survive them. 

My dad lost his mother when he was just a little baby, then he lost his father who was so traumatized to take care of his two young sons that he went into the Veteran's Administration medical center where he spent the next untold decades trying to rid his mind of the demons brought on through his service in world war one and the loss of his wife.

 In the 60's my dad lost his remaining Gabrielson connection when his brother who went in for open heart surgery died on the operating table. For the first time, I heard the heavy sobs of this man when he received the news while sitting at the corner kitchen table as we tried to comfort him by rubbing his back.  I heard his heavy sobs once again when I shared the devastating news of our daughter in a phone call in 2007. 

In 1963, our family was the last to see my mom's mom- we were told she died shortly after our family returned home. She was the matriarch of the family through her prayers for her children, her years of serving as a teacher in one of the last one-room schoolhouses in a town that wanted to merge with the Foley school district just minutes away rather than keeping the one institution that was doing something of value as oppose to be remembered as a town with a couple of bars.


As I reflect on the above comments I think we all live our lives with regrets each time we lose someone dear to us. Like little stones, we pick those regrets off the ground and store them inside of our backpacks, occasionally taking one out that helps us remember the one who died and wishing we had done more when they were alive. As we get older, our backpacks get heavier as we drag them across the gravel path gathering more stones of regret.


God has a better way for our regrets. Instead of punishing ourselves by continuing to carry our regrets, He sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for us and wants us to lay our regrets, our burdens at the foot of that cross- freeing us at last of our personal pain and suffering.


Life is hard at times and there will be the temptation to punish ourselves for the regrets in our lives, but God made a way for us to live our lives in absolute freedom from the guilt from our past.


Each time you lose a loved one, consider writing down all the blessings that came from knowing that person and remember the impact they made in your life. If we do this for each person who has died then there wouldn't be the temptation to punish oneself for those regrets of wishing we had spent more time with the one who died.

 Then, one by one, take out your stones of regret and return them to the earth's surface where they belong. As one does this you will notice your backpack getting lighter, your feet will become like a trotting deer, and a smile will return. 

Jesus Christ wants us to live in absolute freedom from the regrets of our past. 

This is truly what it means to live the Christian faith.