{"id":40753,"date":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/people-write-their-biggest-regrets\/"},"modified":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","slug":"people-write-their-biggest-regrets","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/people-write-their-biggest-regrets\/","title":{"rendered":"People Write Their Biggest Regrets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What&#39;s your biggest regret in life? If it&#39;s anything like these random New Yorkers, it has one very important word in it. Students from Strayer University set up a chalkboard on the sidewalk near Lieutenant Petrosino Square in New York City for one day. At the top of the board was written, &quot;Write your biggest regret.&quot; They provided a supply of colored chalk and set up a video camera to record people writing on the board.<\/p>\n\n<p>The chalkboard attracted many people walking by and was soon filled to overflowing with written regrets that were poignant and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\t<li>Burning bridges<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Never speaking up<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Not being a good husband<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Should have spent more time with family<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Staying in my comfort zone<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Not saying &quot;I love you&quot;<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Never applying to med school<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Not making the most of every day<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Not being a better friend<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>As the board filled up with so many different stories, they noticed that almost all of these regrets had one thing in common. Nearly all of them involved the word &quot;not.&quot; They were about chances not taken. They were about words not spoken. They were about dreams never pursued.<\/p>\n\n<p>But then they gave these same people an eraser and wrote &quot;Clean Slate&quot; at the top of the chalkboard. As she erased her regret one young woman had tears in her eyes as she said, &quot;I feel hopeful. It means that there are possibilities.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: <strong>(1) Christ, cross of; Christ, death of<\/strong>&mdash;In and through Christ we do have a clean slate. All of our sins and regrets have been washed away. <strong>(2) Regret; Failure.<\/strong> People you meet every day carry a weight of regrets normally hidden below the surface of their lives. They need to hear that they can find freedom in Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p><em>Editor&#39;s Note: <a href=\"http:\/\/aplus.com\/a\/clean-slate-blackboard-experiment\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Watch the video here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3677,3719,3726,3738,3931,3933,3973,4010,4077,4133,4153,4167,4227,4358,4439,4482,4537,4541,4788,4970,5028],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40753","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-cross-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-death-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-failure","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-faults","tax_ctp_tags-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-good-friday","tax_ctp_tags-heart","tax_ctp_tags-holidays","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-imperfection","tax_ctp_tags-legacy","tax_ctp_tags-maundy-thursday","tax_ctp_tags-mistakes","tax_ctp_tags-new-birth","tax_ctp_tags-new-life","tax_ctp_tags-regret","tax_ctp_tags-short-life","tax_ctp_tags-sowing-reaping"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>People Write Their Biggest Regrets - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/people-write-their-biggest-regrets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"People Write Their Biggest Regrets - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What&#039;s your biggest regret in life? 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