Repentance means to turn around. To stop one action or behavior and turn to another. I wonder if the Christian church has missed this.
We tend to think of repentance as turning from sin. But, what do we turn towards? Do we say that we are sorry and let it go at that? Repentance is more than saying we are sorry. Repentance also must mean that we turn towards our Father.
Not just turning away from sin, but turning towards. Towards our Father. Is it enough to say sorry for the bad things that we do? Is that where we want to leave it? Or is the story that we really want to leave about us moving towards our Father.
I repent. I want to stop the bad behavior, but I also want to move towards the great lover of my soul.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
1 comment:
Blaise Pasqual had the idea that most of our spiritual lives are wasted on “divertissement”. These distractions he speaks of, ultimately, lead us to live our lives in our own entertainments and superficialities. He concludes that these diversions take our attention away from the important questions in life that would otherwise result in spiritual growth.
Since yesterday was the passion of John the Baptist, I’ll use him to drive the point.
We start with John the Baptist in the desert. Why a desert? A desert is, for all intents and purposes, a desolated region due to the lack of precipitation and humidity. So in other words, a place where one can do away with distractions and get down to the basics of spirituality and confront the truths of one’s soul. So, people began to visit John in the desert to participate in what we call, Metanoia, changing one’s mind/attitude to prepare for the reign of God. However, John’s theme of Metanoia is merely a stepping stone in to the divine life. This is made evident when John says, “I baptize you with water, but the one that follows me will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.”
So, you are correct, repentance is more than saying we are sorry, it is a readying of the soul for the Lord to be baptized into the divine life, which is the Holy Spirit and fire John speaks of.
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