Living with no regrets

“Get the truth and never sell it;
also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.”
— Proverbs 23:23 NLT

Note: This is the 2025 Convocation Address I gave to the students, faculty, and staff at Lancaster Bible College. I have left it in its original form. I trust God to help you make the applications to your life. If you would like to watch or listen to this address, just click here.

Have you ever made a stupid purchase? The kind that leaves you wondering,

  • “What was I thinking?”

  • Why did I let myself get carried away with that?

  • How could I have been so dumb?

I have. And more than once! And there’s a name for that finger-wagging, mental scolding I give myself. It’s called “Buyer’s Remorse." It’s the regret I feel because I didn’t get the value for the purchase I made. And that “purchase” could have been:

  • Something I bought.

  • A relationship I invested in.

  • Or . . . time I wasted.

Just last weekend, after a full day of sitting at my desk, my dinner and I sat down in front of the TV “to relax.” I had recently read a series of books by an ex-Navy Seal, and Amazon had turned them into a TV series. So I watched the first one, then the second one, then, (and why not) . . . the third one.

You ever eat too much ice cream? Yeah, that’s the feeling I had after episode #3. I got to bed later than I usually do, but I still got up the next morning at the time I usually do — and that left me tired, and with a bad case of finger-wagging, mental scolding, Buyer’s Remorse.

You ever been there?

What if . . . you and I could all come to the end of this academic year with no case of Buyer’s Remorse:

  • “I used my time wisely!”

  • “I learned a lot!”

  • Students: “I’m so much better prepared for what God has in store for me.”

  • Profs and staff: “I feel I gave our students the very best of me!”

WE CAN! We can all live without Buyer’s Remorse by making three trade-offs we find in Proverbs 23:23.

Get the truth and never sell it;
    also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.

The Principle: Buy the truth. Never sell the truth.

Solomon is telling us there is something we have to get and never let go of — TRUTH! When Solomon uses the word TRUTH, he is not talking about the idea of, “Well, you’ve got your truth, and I’ve got my truth.”

No! Solomon is talking about God’s Word AND everything that aligns with God’s Word. That’s why the Psalmist says: “All your words are true” (Psalm 119:160). That’s why Paul writes,

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Truth is that which endures (1 Peter 1:25) and proves itself morally and intellectually correct. Truth is God’s Word and everything that aligns with God’s Word.

The Principle: Buy the truth. Never sell the truth.

Yesterday, I asked Shannan, “What’s one thing you have that you would never sell?” Here’s the text she sent back!

Great answer, babe!

So, when Solomon says, “Get the truth and never sell it!” He is urging us in the strongest way possible that once you have the truth, don’t you let yourself:

  • Get pressured out of it.

  • Get talked out of it.

  • Get compromised out of it.

You hang onto it with all your might.

Ok, got the principle: BUY THE TRUTH. NEVER SELL THE TRUTH!

QUESTION: How do I get "the TRUTH”? This is where the three trade-offs come in:

trade-off #1: Trade wandering for wisdom

Do you know how many social media posts are uploaded just to Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok every minute in 2025? Here are the numbers:

  • Instagram: 33,472 photos; 15,833 videos; 277,778 stories.

  • Facebook: 317,000 status updates; 54,000 shared links

  • TikTok: 16,000 videos per minute

Perhaps you are thinking, “Dr. Kiedis, are you anti-social media?” No, I am not. But God is anti-time wasting. And it is easy to wander through the land of social media, endlessly scrolling and swiping. God says, “trade social media wandering, endless video game playing . . . or whatever time-waster might trip you up (and for me that’s scrolling through car auction sites) for becoming a Wisdom Chaser.”

Solomon says, “Get wisdom!” Learn how to live life skillfully!

TRADE-OFF #2: TRADE STUBBORN FOR TEACHABLE

Get wisdom. Get discipline.  Some of your translations will read, “Get instruction.” And you might say, “Well, I can check that off — I am in college, after all!”

But he’s talking about something different here; he’s talking about my general disposition to being instructed, corrected, disciplined. Look at Proverbs 23:12,

Commit yourself to instruction;
    listen carefully to words of knowledge.

This is Hebrew poetry, and he is giving us a parallel thought: Committing to instruction is learning to listen carefully . . . to your parents, to your boss, in class, on the job, on the athletic field.

  • An instrumentalist needs a teachable spirit to get better.

  • An athlete needs a teachable spirit to get better.

  • An employee needs a teachable spirit to get better.

Trade stubborn (“They can’t teach me anything!”) for teachable (“Help me get better!”).

Trade-off #3: trade “trending” for discerning

Look back at Proverbs 23:23, “Get good judgment.”

When God commends the Sons of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12:32 as those “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do,” he uses the exact same word we find here for “good judgment.”

The Sons of Issachar were discerning.

You know, it’s easy to get caught up in what’s trending:

Have you heard? “Taylor Swift is gonna drop her 12th album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl.’ Better get your orange on!” “Guys, are you wearing a Travis Kelce jersey?’”

Trending tells us what’s going on; discerning tells us what we should be focused on.

  • Just because I can do it, does not mean I should do it.

  • Just because I have the time, does not mean I should spend the time.

  • Just because it is within my reach, does not mean I should grab it.

Discerning sees the trends, weighs the options, makes the wise choice.

Let’s recap:

God’s Principle: Buy the truth. Never sell the truth.

God’s Plan: Make the three trade-offs

  • Trade wandering for wisdom.

  • Trade stubborn for teachable.

  • Trade trending for discerning.

Now the important part: WHY? To make your father proud! Look at verse 24:

The father of godly children has cause for joy.
    What a pleasure to have children who are wise.

Let’s take that one step further. Honor your earthly father (and mother), AND honor your Heavenly Father, for this is HIS Word.

If we want to get through our academic year to May 2026 with no Buyer’s Remorse,
“Buy the truth! Do not sell the truth! Every day!

It IS a great day to be a Charger! And an even better day when we buy the truth — EVERY DAY — and do not sell it. Get wisdom. Get discipline. Get good judgment.

What is God saying to you about that this year?

Notes: