Buyer’s remorse

Buyer’s remorse. You know that feeling. The purchase is complete, the product firmly in your hand, and a wave of dissatisfaction or worry washes over you.

My most vivid experience of this occurred when Mary and I purchased our first house in Fort Wayne, Indiana in January of 1979. A three bedroom, one bath house with loads of potential. $33,000 was all that it took!

The house also came with a shared driveway. And within a few days of moving into the home on North Anthony, I interacted with my new neighbor, Martin, in our shared space. After some abbreviated pleasantries, Martin announced, “Wow, when I saw how much they were asking for this house I thought, ‘Who is ever going to pay this much for this thing?’” And yes, you guessed it, $33,000 was the asking price!

Enter buyer’s remorse.

The feeling that the price paid is greater than the value received.

Do you ever wonder if God had or has cosmic buyer’s remorse? More accurately, Creator’s remorse?

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. (Genesis 6:5–6, ESV)

This honest reflection from the heart of God to the pen of Moses does not undermine the changeless nature of God, but rather, it speaks to His grief and broken heartedness over the mess His creation made of His gift of life. His prize creation, brought gut-wrenching sorrow.

Then Noah. In this case, God found one righteous man and he saved the world. A restart.

And while the restart of Noah was short lived, it was a tile on the mosaic of the picture of grace. Of Jesus.

Indeed, The LORD would not have to look far to see the wickedness of man across the planet today. He would not have to probe deeply to determine that the heart of His creation remains evil continually. No cable network, or blog site required.

Again, God finds one righteous man. The righteous man. His perfect son. And there is nothing short lived about His righteousness. And when God looks at us, He sees the righteous reflection of His son.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

No Creator’s Remorse.

Redeemed. Rescued. And yes, Re-formed into the very likeness of His Son.

So that… as His followers we would reflect Him to this radically broken, hate-filled, ego-driven, pleasure-pursuing, power-craving, violence-embracing, injustice-tolerating, scandalous, selfish, abusive and sinful world.

As advocates. As ministers. As agents of change.

His Ambassadors. Visitors in a foreign land, but representing our home country… His Kingdom.

This is our calling. Our mission. Our message. Jesus. The one righteous.

Follow Him. Serve Him. Honor Him with a life worthy of this calling.

Against the suffocating darkness. Light. Into the excruciating despair. Hope.

“He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” (Ephesians 2:10, MSG)

Indeed… “work we had better be doing.”