What Might Have Been

Barney L. Keith

How painful is the thought expressed by one of the great poets, John Greenleaf Whittier: “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!”’

Many a person has thrown away his life in drug addiction (including alcohol). Numerous are those who have thrown away their marriages by becoming involved with others. Parents have often lost their children by neglecting them or even granting them excessive freedom. Many are those who have thrown away a good name by some ungodly behavior. Do you not suppose that a vast majority of these later in life have shed tears of bitter remorse as they have thought of “what might have been”? It is too late, however, for all has been lost.

This bitter lament is found also in the Bible. It was expressed by the “weeping prophet,” Jeremiah (8:20), as he sadly exclaimed, “The harvest is past, The summer is ended, And we are not saved!” God had given His people ample time to repent and turn from their idolatrous, immoral ways. They had not shown any inclination to respond appropriately to His offers of mercy. When God was no longer willing to tolerate their wickedness, the Babylonian captivity became His means of teaching them a 70-year lesson. No doubt there were times in Babylon when they mourned and wept over “what might have been” if they had only listened to the voices of the prophets who had warned them.

Such lessons ought not to fall on deaf ears today. That individual who has stopped serving the Lord faithfully will one day realize what he has given up. It may be too late then to do anything about it. My dear wayward brother or sister, before the “harvest is past” and the “summer is ended,” you ought to take advantage of a merciful God’s offer of pardon by repentance, confession, and prayer. Better that, by far, than to stand condemned in the judgment and have to think of “what might have been.” That individual, too, who has never obeyed the gospel should ponder seriously what hell is like (according to God’s word) and submit himself to the rule of Christ in faith, repentance, confession, and baptism before it is too late to do so. Far better this than to be separated eternally from God and think of “what might have been.”