I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word, “Repent!” I’m picturing a crazy person with a placard proclaiming the end of the world. Somehow it seems difficult to treat the idea of “repenting” seriously.
Maybe it’s because we think only really big wrongs call for repentance. It’s not that hard to acknowledge that we have regrets, or that we’re sorry for some things we’ve done, but to repent? Doesn’t it seem too dramatic, too outsized? After all, we aren’t really that bad, are we? Isn’t it all just a bit too embarrassing?
Easter reminds us that God forgives us, but do we even know what we need forgiveness for?
Some of us do. Jesus warned us that the people His society shunned – the “big” sinners – would know the Kingdom sooner that the rest of us because His message of absolution rang its sweet mercy loud and clear in their ears.
But what about the rest of us?
When I first began to understand Christianity and to see Christ proffering this atonement for my sins, I can tell you honestly I wasn’t terribly aware of what those sins were. I wasn’t even particularly wracked with guilt.
But I did know that I wanted what Jesus was offering me. I knew that without Him, I was treading water in an endless ocean, and He was making room for me in a life raft. I wanted “in.”
My experience since then has been that God reveals what needs forgiving as I gain the humility to see myself more clearly, without the rose-colored glasses of my self-defenses. It’s an ongoing process. I feel blessed that even as my wrongs become apparent to me, even as I bear the consequences of my imprudent and self-centered actions, God’s love for me will yet mend my brokenness. As time goes on, I am more and more aware of the divine mercy and patience and ultimate faith in my ability to grow beyond these unsavory tendencies to put myself first. Still, it’s a work in progress.
If the word “repent” feels awkward for us, perhaps it’s because it commits us to more than we can bear at once.
So let’s break it down.
The Lord loves us and wants to be our God. If we find we want to call someone beside ourselves “Lord,” there’s enough humility in that to begin.
So instead of hearing Christianity as a call to “repent,” let’s hear it as a call to “connect.”
God loves you and asks, “Will you love me back?”
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