What I’m Thinking: Regret

In Hosea 11, God expresses regret and grief for the exile of Israel. In Luke 12, Jesus tells a story about a man who didn’t have time to regret his greed.

Here’s a transcript:

First, I am thinking about those who have lost loved ones or who have been so grievously injured in the mass shooting in Gilroy, California, over the weekend. My prayers are with them in their grief and in their recovery.

And we must put prayers in action to change a society that is… that is far too likely to turn to violence and to cause harm.

I’m also thinking about the 11th chapter of Hosea (Hosea 11:1-11) and I’m thinking about the 12th chapter of Luke (Luke 12:13-21). In Luke, Jesus tells a story about a man who gave his love to his wealth. He grew lots of grain and he built lots of barns and he saved it all up and said, now I will enjoy it – but it was that night that his life’s days came to their end.

Hosea is an expression of God’s grief, grief over the child Israel. God, through Hosea, describes teaching Ephraim (the people of Israel) to walk, and God’s grief over the exile into which they’ve gone.

I just wonder if we fully appreciate how anger and division and loss and distraction… I wonder if we appreciate that we will come to deeply, deeply regret those. I wonder if we realize that we will come to the place that God did with Hosea. I wonder if we realize that there is a story beyond the story that Jesus told: about the regret of the man who gave his heart to his wealth, and did not hold a heart for his family, for his neighbors, for the stranger.

There is a way not to regret. That is to be open hearted in our lives.

Once more I ask your prayers for the people of Hawai’i Island as we continue with demonstrations and police presence, but also conversation, on the slopes of a mountain held sacred by many people in many, many ways. May we be guided to some resolution yet invisible to most of us that will also heal our broken community.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.