Fiction only resonates with us when it reflects fact. Think of our fictional heroes. Do you know what so many of them have in common? Regrets. So many of them have something in their past, some failing, some loss, something that they wish they could change. But even with their superpowers, they can’t. Batman’s parents are dead. Spiderman, his uncle Ben. Ironman had a whole history of arms dealing. Black Widow is obsessed with clearing the red from her ledger. Even Superman, the last of his people carries the weight of the destroyed planet Krypton on his shoulders. All these heroes are driven by these losses, these failings, these regrets. They soak in that regret because it gives their lives direction and meaning. This is a trap. We may think that holding on to our regret will motivate us to be better people, but this is really just another form of discontentment. What is regret other than thinking, “What I have is smaller than what I could have or should have had”? God is bigger and you have him. Or to claim, “What I have become is less than I should have become.” God is enough and he loves you, and that is enough. A life consumed by regret does not find its sufficiency in Christ. But to recognize that we are truly forgiven by God is to be freed for action, for the rest of life! We don’t sit and soak in our regret. We move forward as a new person.