If you got to the end of your life and were allowed to do it all over gain, what would be the biggest thing you’d want to change?
I’ve wanted a lot of do overs in my life. Dealing with regrets is a big deal with me. That’s why I love the idea of time travel stories. You get to go back and fix things! How great is that?! I could go back to every Jr. High dance and actually ask the girl out before the last slow song. You reading this, Meghan?! We could still be together!
“In life, I regret the things I didn’t do far more than the missteps I made along the way.” —David Stanley
All of the regrets I can think of right now have to do with chickening out. I was about to talk to the girl, pray for a stranger, get out of my seat and do something stupid. But I didn’t. And I wished I did.
“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘it might have been.’” —Kurt Vonnegut
At the end of the movie Wish I Was Here an elderly father lies in his death bed with his two sons standing over him. He wasn’t a good father. His sons hated him for the longest time but they’ve just apologized, reconciled, and made things right. With his last moments on earth he mutters to himself “If I get to do it all over again I promise I’ll do better.” Then he said the thing that has stuck with me for the last two months.
“I’ll try to remember how fast it goes.”
“I’ll try to remember how fast it goes.”
The man wants a do over and the biggest thing he’d change is going through life knowing how fast life goes by! I can’t stop thinking about that.
The Bible says “you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes (James 4:14).” James is frustrated with people wasting away their lives with their own plans and completely ignoring the life God is wanting to lead them to. You don’t have time for that! Who knows how long you have here. Listen to God. I’ve got some regrets in that category too.
I will never have a time machine. I’ve come to terms with that.
I don’t have time to chicken out. This goes by too quickly. I don’t have time for regrets. My life is a vapor, a mist. I’d rather do all that I can in this short moment than play it safe, get to the end, and want a do over. I’d rather get it right the first time.
Try to remember how fast it goes.
Want more on this theme? Go watch About Time or Dead Poet Society