Many of
us long for change, in ourselves or other people, and are working hard to see
it happen. In the churches we spend a lot of energy trying to change people
that don’t really seem to want to be changed, and it can leave us frustrated. Despite
our best efforts, the status quo remains.
Lately a biblical theme relating to this has
been on my mind: repentance. I believe that this theme is one key to live in
peace with our frustrations. Repentance in the Christian understanding means to
change course or attitude, it’s the realization that I’ve been on the wrong
path and I didn’t know it. It’s often accompanied by feelings of regret and
sadness as we realize that we’ve hurt people, sinned against God or just
screwed up in general. Those feelings are important because they propel us into
changing, not just feeling sorry. Repentance is complete when we have changed,
our thinking and our behavior. (a process that 3DM call the Circle)
What is
key to remember for us is the repentance is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of
our actions. It’s a gift, not the result of persuasion. And because of that it’s
powerful, see Acts 10 for an example. The Spirit can break thru to the most
proud person, pick a hole in the strongest armor and bypass our usual self-justifications.
Because
it’s a work of God, we can’t do it. If He doesn’t do it, there won’t be any
repentance. If He does, there will be the opportunity for change. But we can’t.
And in that there’s rest. Where we sense the presence of repentance, we should
press in, but where there isn’t we should do our piece and then wait. Much like
with the Person of Peace in Luke 10.
With a
little deeper thinking about this, perhaps we would have little less
frustrations, what do you think?
