Repentance

When you hear someone talk about repentance does it make your ears perk up, or do you cringe?

I'm guessing most of the time it's the latter. I'd say we tend to put up our defenses and think of it as something we're doing wrong that we should be sorry about... and never to do again!

Trevor Hudson frames repentance in a completely different light in chapter 3 of his wonderful book 'Seeking God.' I won't share as much as I did yesterday, but a few highlights for me...

"When God, in Christ, says 'Repent and believe the Good News,' he is uttering an invitation, not a threat." - Gerard Hughes, SJ

On p. 50...

"...as Dallas Willard explained, to repent is to 'review your plans for living and base your life on this remarkable new opportunity.'"

"So we need to stress that when Jesus called those around him to repent, he was inviting them to enter the fullness of life in which they would come to know that their lives had an eternal significance and an eternal destiny."

On p. 54...

"...repentance is [was] the door AND the pathway of the spiritual journey." (it ain't a one-time thing)

 

There are a few more things at the end of the chapter I'm going to separate and share on their own. This was a great chapter.

One thing I thought about while reading this... I think we often mistakenly view repentance as needing to change what we DO. However, it seems Jesus uses it more in the context of changing how we THINK. Perhaps our culture has conditioned us to believe it's about us changing our behavior, and we miss out on letting the Spirit work in and through us to do the changing. Or, maybe it's just me.

Anyhew... "invitation" rather than "change this about yourself." I like that.