{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fskycrest-community-church.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fregert-92026-ep2-1GfqPPp_","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Regert - 9.20.26 - EP2","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/419fcac3-b17d-4c49-92ef-06c18811ab6c/c49587d7-f838-49b6-a1f6-96aa47521c40/cropped_1789994719164.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"Regret has a way of showing up uninvited. It sits quietly in the back of our minds, reminding us of the decision we wish we could take back, the words we wish we hadn't said, the year we wish we could live over. In week two of our series on regret, we look honestly at why we make the decisions we do, and we ask a question that might surprise you: what if chasing your own happiness is actually the thing causing your regret, not preventing it?\n\nHappy Is Not the Goal\n\nWe live in a culture obsessed with personal happiness, but the word itself comes from an old root meaning \"chance\" or \"luck.\" True happiness, in that original sense, depends entirely on circumstances we cannot control. Chasing it is like chasing the wind. Solomon proved this the hard way. In Ecclesiastes 2, he built houses, planted vineyards, gathered wealth, hired musicians, and denied himself nothing his eyes desired. His conclusion in verse 11 is sobering: \"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.\" The wisest man who ever lived tried every path to happiness and came up empty. If personal happiness were the answer, he would have found it.\n\nLooking Up and Looking Out\n\nSo if the pursuit of our own happiness leads to regret rather than away from it, what's the better question? Scripture points us somewhere unexpected. In Deuteronomy 24:5, God gave newly married men a year free from other duties, not for their own comfort, but \"to bring happiness to the wife he has married.\" And in Jesus's parable of the bags of gold, the faithful servants who put their master's resources to good use hear him say in Matthew 25:21, \"Come and share your master's happiness.\" In both cases, happiness comes as a byproduct of serving someone else, not as the goal itself. That leads us to the real question to ask before any decision: whose happiness does this decision serve? Mine, or God's and others'?\n\nA Better Kind of Wisdom\n\nThis doesn't mean we never make decisions for ourselves. We have to eat, rest, and care for our own needs so we're able to serve others well. But if every decision is ultimately about our own happiness, we're setting ourselves up for the very regret we're trying to avoid. The wise path is the one that looks outward: toward God and toward the people He's placed in our lives. Jesus himself is the model for this. He didn't come to secure his own comfort; he lived, died, and rose again looking out for us. When we trust him and follow his example, we find something happiness alone could never give us: a life with purpose that doesn't collapse when circumstances change.\n\nThe Path Beyond Regret\n\nHere's the good news in all of this: God doesn't just want to help us make wiser decisions going forward, he also offers healing for the regrets we already carry. That healing starts with a relationship with Jesus Christ, whose death and resurrection secure our future and free us to stop striving for a happiness we were never meant to control. Wisdom says it's not about our happiness, it's about the happiness of the God we serve and the people we're called to love.\n\nThis week, take a moment to reflect on your own decision making. Are you asking, \"Will this make me happy?\" or are you asking, \"Whose happiness does this decision serve?\" Talk with your family about the difference between the two, and consider one decision this week you could make for someone else's good rather than your own comfort. If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend who might be wrestling with regret of their own, and join us next week as we continue exploring God's plan for a life beyond it.\n"}