Top 5 Deathbed Regrets

My wife sent me this article today, written by a palliative nurse, who lists the top 5 regrets people have revealed to her on their deathbeds.  She says these are the 5 most common, although it is unclear to me whether she actually tabulated the regrets given to her and came up with this statistical result.  That doesn’t really blunt the power of the article, though.

I think any of the five or perhaps all five could be used as part of any sermon dealing with life and death (Mark 8:36), the brevity of life (James 4:13-17), or having an eternal perspective (Psalm 39).  Below are her five, with other passages that could be used with each one.  I think it would be ok to use just one in a sermon.  You could say something like, “A palliative nurse compiled the 5 most common deathbed regrets, and one of the five dealt with exactly what we’re talking about.  It was ______.”

Here are the five:

1)  I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. [In this case, I’m thinking of it more like: “I wish I had lived a life true to God’s calling, instead of letting peer pressure or the world influence me as much as they did.”  The REAL life lived true to ourselves is the one lived in line with the purpose for which God made us.]

Daniel 3, Acts 5:29

2) I wish I didn’t work so hard.

Matthew 6:19-21, Matthew 6:24-34, Mark 8:36

3) I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Ephesians 4:15, James 3

4) I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Proverbs 18:24, Acts 20 (Paul’s closeness with the Ephesian believers), 2 Timothy 4:9-18

5) I wish that I had let myself be happier.

John 10:10, Philippians 4

 

By the way, you could also use this whole article as a contrast between the author’s this-worldly understanding of “happiness” (which seems to end when someone achieves “peace” and then dies) and the Bible’s infinitely deeper, eternal joy in the presence of Christ.  That would work with Matthew 25, Revelation 5, Revelation 21, Revelation 22, and plenty of others.   [I write all these references out so that they will show up when people search on particular texts.  I’m still trying to figure out how to make tag searches work like I want them to.]

Chris Christie and Heaping Hot Coals

I used this a while back in a sermon to show the truth of Scripture’s admonition to love and bless your enemies, by which you heap hot coals on their head and receive reward from the Lord (Proverbs 25:21-22, Romans 12:20).

At the end of a gubernatorial debate, Chris Christie and his opponent Barbara Buono were both asked to share something nice (link includes video clip) about their opponents.  Buono took the opportunity to get in another jab, which initially looks like a positive for her in the debate.

“Well he’s good on late night TV, he’s just not so good in New Jersey,” she said as the crowd cheered.

Christie, instead, really DID say something nice, and the truth of Scripture became obvious.  The Washington Examiner even referenced the Scriptural idea of “heaping hot coals” in their article title that I linked to above.

“She’s obviously a good and caring mother and someone who cares deeply about public service in this state and she’s dedicated a lot of her life to it,” Christie said.  “And while we have policy disagreements, Christine, I would never denigrate her service and I think we need more people who care enough about our communities to be able to stand up and do the job that she’s done over the last 20 years.”

A brilliant political move, but it worked because it is God’s truth.

Would work with: Proverbs 25, Romans 12, 2 Kings 6, Exodus 23