A Life Without Regret

How Clear, How Lovely Bright
by A. E. Housman

How clear, how lovely bright,
How beautiful to sight
Those beams of morning play;
How heaven laughs out with glee
Where, like a bird set free,
Up from the eastern sea
Soars the delightful day.

To-day I shall be strong,
No more shall yield to wrong,
Shall squander life no more;
Days lost, I know not how,
I shall retrieve them now;
Now I shall keep the vow
I never kept before.

Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies
Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground
Falls the remorseful day.

Housman offers this poem, tracing an arc from radiance to remorse, suggesting that, like the rising and setting sun, life begins full of promise but ends in frustration and regret.

But must life really be so futile? So fraught with disappointment? Is such a grim prognosis really in order?

For the Christian, the answer is decidedly and happily no.

Should we choose to embrace and follow Christ as our Good Shepherd, both literally and metaphorically, we may encounter many challenges during our earthly journey, but also a life truly lived well, adorned with fullness of joy and wholly absent Housman’s grim and dispiriting “remorseful day.”

We will enjoy intimacy with God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as well as true, enduring, and joyful friendships. Allowing Christ to shepherd us, to truly and decisively guide us throughout our lives, directing our steps, ordering our paths, authoring our agendas, can yield a life which unfolds as a grand adventure; and though we may endure suffering for a time, we know also that redemption is at hand, for God is ever “working all things together for good.”

Beyond this is the certain, tantalizing, and intoxicating knowledge that we are pilgrims, beckoned daily toward a day and a place so full of life, splendor, and grandeur that this life can only pale in comparison to them.

This life ought to be, indeed is intended to be, a life of incomparable meaning and purpose, bejeweled with rich and deep friendships, and an intimate communion with the creator and sustainer of all that is. Though at times we may sorrow, and at others weep with those who are weeping but, we also rejoice with those who are rejoicing, trusting in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy (I Timothy 6:17);. Yes, we throw ourselves, with abandon, into this adventure filled with curiosity; exploring, discovering, and wondering at the infinite splendor of God’s creation and His eternal purpose, at work in us and all around us.

And, at last, on that great day, we shall hear our Lord declare, “Well done, good and faithful servant … enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

It will be then and there that real living will begin. We will discover, I think, that as wonderful as this life has been, it has served only as a staging ground for the life to come. Endless and endlessly joyful and perfect.

No, remorse and a haunting parade of “what-ifs” are not our end. Solomon said it well:

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn That shines brighter and brighter until the full day” Proverbs 4:18 (NASB)