Repent

There are times when I’m on a roll explaining something and someone makes an interjection that actually enhances the roll.

We were looking at the history of the divided kingdom of Israel in the book of Kings and Chronicles. I was on a roll about the cycle of disaster and renewal that took place a lot in Israel’s history. I happened to mention repent, when one of the young ones interjected to ask what the word means.

I love it when terms used are challenged, so that assumptions are not made and clarity can be given. Defining repent has been done masterfully by others elsewhere, but it’s worth sharing my visual definition, because as I outlined it, more clarity was given to me.

The visual I used was walking northwards. I established that I was going in completely the wrong direction. I should have been going southwards. So I needed to make a 180 degree turn. Changing direction physically would call for a change of mind and heart first. This is what I visually and physically defined as repent for the benefit of the exercise. The listeners/viewers got it.

Yet, I didn’t stop there. I highlighted the problem many of us have when it comes to going in the right direction. It is the problem of degrees.

For example, in my northward direction, I can recognise its detrimental impact on me. I can say I want to change and shift from northward to eastward. That shift (90 degrees) acknowledges the need for change and a shift in the right direction.

Further to that I say that I need a new path to deliver the change I’m looking for and in a brief moment I am southward facing. (The 180 degree shift from the starting position.)

Yet no sooner have I made that determination than I resolve to be the best one to set my course and sort things. Now from being facing in the right direction, I’ve made a westward shift 270 degree from the original position – which suggests progress and movement. Not realising, however, that the choice of self-determination has drawn us away from the right direction – and funnily enough just 90 degrees away from where we started.

That step is made when we console ourselves that our resolution and self-determination is not only the right way, but it also gives us some of the comforts of a way we’ve been accustomed to. In all that we find ourselves back in the northward position away from where we were meant to be going. Yet because there was movement, we mistake it for progress and ignorantly move on in the wrong direction.

You might see similarities between this and what tends to happens in revolutions. Dissatisfaction with oppressive system (90); desire to see fairness and justice (180); desire to set up system to maintain order for your comfort (270); resulting eventually in another oppressive system (360).

The key to repent is focus away from self and to the One who can get us going in the right direction. That is why repenting is not just a one-off action. We constantly need our internal spiritual compass properly set, so we don’t wander away from the direction we have been set by the One who truly sets us free.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden