Recently I was reading the February 2010 Christian Living Today. My mother pointed out an article – “A no regrets life”. I skimmed over the article and then also researched it a little more and also put my own thoughts into it too. So this blog post is a combination of works of my own, the Christian Living Today magazine and a article called “One month to live”.

This post is titled  “4 universal principles to a regret free life”. I hope it makes you think about your life and how you could be doing things differently. However – in saying that – im not suggesting that you have problems in yours.

So the four principles are; Live passionately, love completely, learn humbly and lastly, leave boldly. With that being said – I feel it important to quote something that Mother Theresa said – “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much”.

Live Passionately

passion • noun 1 very strong emotion.  2 an outburst of very strong emotion. 3 an intense enthusiasm for something. 4 (the Passion) the suffering and death of Jesus.

“I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” – John 10:10b (Msg)

This made me think of the fact that our time on earth is so short and that we should be looking at more than just what we have here on earth. What is of real importance on earth?

We look at how Jesus lived in his short time on earth – He forgave – even those who put Him to death on the cross. So the lesson I get from this is that we should be forgiving of everyone – despite what they have done to you.

I think of one of Don Francisco’s songs now. The name of the song is “I don’t care where you have been sleeping”. The words go something like “I don’t care where you’ve been sleeping, I don’t who’s made your bed, I’ve already gave My life to set you free; There’s no sin you could imagine that is stronger than my love, And it’s all yours if you’ll come home again to Me.”

Jesus loved everyone and showed this in numerous ways. We need to love those who interact with us fully. This will be discussed in more detail in “Love completely”.

So how should one express passion in life? Living a life of passion means living life as God would of intended you too. God wants our lives to be filled and guided by passion for life and others. He wants us to be compassionate to others and he wants us to care for those who are hurting.

We often hear people saying – “Live today as if it were your last”. This has everything to do with living passionately. What will you be happy with facing on the day of judgement? Will you be able to answer for all you have done? Did you do all you possibly could? Did you take every possible opportunity to use what you were given?

Love Completely

love • noun 1 an intense feeling of deep affection.  2 a great interest and pleasure in something. 4 a person or thing that one loves.

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ This is the first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Matthew 22:37 – 39 (NIV)

When one thinks about love, our minds often shoot directly to the romantic kind of love. I tend to think about the kind of love that God has for us. It is unconditional love – love that is not subject to being loved in return. Humans do not have the ability to love like this, but we can try our hardest.

I want to love people despite what they have done to me – and this I try to do. We see that in Jesus’ last 30 days on earth, he loved completely. This we see in John 13:1 – “Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love.”

So many people, at the end of their lives have many regrets – many of which could be said were from caused from not loving completely. When you question if you love completely – ask yourself the following questions; Did you love God fully? Did you love and show love to those around you?

We must love those around us despite what they do – the Bible says in Cor. 13:8 that “Love never fails…”

Learn Humbly

humble • adjective (humbler, humblest) 1 having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. 2 of low rank.3 of modest pretensions or dimensions: humble beginnings.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!” – Phil. 2:5-8 (NIV)

Jesus, at the end of his life, humbled himself to the degree of dyeing a shameful sinners death upon the cross. We should take every experience in life and use it as a opportunity for learning. I don’t speak from experience. I often take criticism badly – and after having time to think about it – I realize that, well – I could learn from it and become better through it – as bad, shameful or painful it was.

God allows us to see our problems and we need to take this with humility and try and resolve these problems. God does not expect us to do this alone. Life is not meant to be lived alone – we need people around us – to help us and in the reverse – for us to help.

We need to get to the stage in life when we can say that I cant do this alone. I give up. We need to then ask God for help – only after we admit these things can He work within us. So we need to take advice and criticisms in life humbly.

Leave Boldly

bold • adjective 1 confident and courageous

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” – Matthew 25:23 (NIV)

I believe that our time on earth is limited and I believe that we are not made to live on earth for eternity. We need to let go of earthly things when our time comes. We need to have a sense of security about what happens to us once we die.

We need to see death as simply a path to eternity with our maker – Christ Jesus. If we see it like this – we should not see death as the end of life as we know it – but rather a beginning of a new chapter – and if this is how we view it – surely we are able to leave boldly. So we need to ask ourselves – are we ready to meet our God?

I hope this article has given you some food for thought. It made me think hard about myself – as I write this article – I know there are many unanswered questions for me. So I write this not as someone who is perfect in all these areas – but rather as someone who would like to embrace these principles and introduce them into my own life.

Noel