No regrets

I recently remembered something that happened on my mission trip to Australia in 2012, and God is using it to challenge me. It's rare that I remember something that I had forgotten about a trip that happened such a while back, but today I remembered that on my 15th birthday, near the end of our time in Australia, our team leaders asked us what we desired out of the rest of the trip, and I remember saying that I wanted no regrets. I didn't want to look back and say that there was a person that I could have talked to but didn't; that there was someone I was supposed to pray for but I chickened out. I didn't want to pass up a single moment, a single opportunity, a single thing that God had for me to do on the trip.


Sadly, I failed. I didn't talk to everyone that I had the ability to talk to. I didn't pray over every person I was supposed to. I failed, like I so often do. But now God has brought this desire back to mind. He has challenged me to actually live like this. He is daring me to see what life would be like if I didn't hold back anything, ever. That's a scary thing. To step out and just do whatever He says without hesitation is scary. It takes a lot of courage and sacrifice. There's a reason Christ told us to die to ourselves; we don't want to do the scary stuff He asks us to do! I have to die to myself to even consider what He says sometimes.


But now let's step back and look at the bigger picture. What would the world look like as a whole if we all lived this way? Even as I write this, He is bringing to mind things I could do that I really don't want to do. To be honest, it's making me uncomfortable. But that's okay. He's showing me more every day how my life really is an adventure like the ones I've always read about, and bringing to mind all the time how none of those exciting adventures were ever particularly comfortable for the adventurer.


Ephesians 5:15-16 (emphasis mine)
 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.