On August
27th, the Todd Becker Foundation came to Eugene High School. During 2 events,
Keith Becker shared his brother Todd’s story.
Todd was a high school senior who had a tremendous amount of potential
only to die at the age of 18. As I listened to Keith share Todd’s story,
probably the most impactful detail for me related to an opportunity Todd passed
up on the last day of his life.
Todd was given
an offer to have assurance of where he was going to spend eternity. Really the
offer was much more than that. Todd had been offered a chance to have peace of
mind throughout life, and especially during the moments of life’s end. Sadly,
Todd refused.
The Apostle
Paul said, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no
regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Cor. 7:10). I wonder, if Todd would have been able to
reconsider his response with a knowledge of what would happen that night, would
he have changed his mind, leading to a radically different outcome?
Interestingly,
this was the very opportunity that another man had:
One morning, as
a man named Alfred was reading the newspaper, he read the words of his own
obituary! This happened as a result of a simple error on the part of the journalist,
for Alfred’s brother was the one had just died. Needless to say this was a
disturbing experience for Alfred, but what was most disturbing was what was
written about him.
The newspaper
described how Alfred was a terrible man, “a merchant of death,” making “his
fortune by finding a way to kill the most people as ever before in the shortest
time possible.” Thus, it described how it was a good thing for this man to be
dead. This was definitely not how Alfred saw himself, even though he was partly
responsible for others’ deaths as the inventor of dynamite.
Alfred’s life
was changed that morning. It was like someone gave him as second chance at life
to live with no regrets. So much so, that when Alfred did die 8 years later,
his actual obituary read vastly different. In fact each year the world honors
someone for taking up the cause which Alfred started: the Nobel Peace Prize.
What would you
change if you were in this man’s life? What regrets do you live with that you
wish you could leave behind? Sometimes our regrets do not surface until we come
face to face with the reality of the life we have been living, like Alfred.
Meanwhile still, other regrets only surface in the final moments of our lives.
Any regret which you might have or could possibly have, can be erased.
Scripture
promises that when we seek the Lord with a repentant heart, He will deliver us
from all our fears and therefore enable us to live with no shame (Psalm
34:4-5). Likewise, Scripture gives us a great model of how to pass from this life
with no regrets: past, present or future. “...Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13b-14).
Therefore, I
encourage you to turn your life over to Jesus Christ, and thus, leave your
regrets behind.
In His service,
Matt
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