Talking about Repentance…
Webster’s Dictionary defines repentance as “to be sorry; to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life; to feel regret or contrition; to feel sorrow or contrition for“. As you might have already guessed the topic of this post post is about repentance. Repentance is such a delicate issue because it goes hand in hand with sin and the definition of sin. As I wrote in the Talking about Sin post, sin has a definition of its own. What is bad or wrong for you might not be wrong or bad for me. It is all a matter of perspective according to our post-modern society.
For me, as a believer of Christ, I practice repentance because I do not want to live a sinful life. I want to live a life that models the life of Christ, which is a sinless life. But I realize that I am not God so I cannot live a life without sin because I am human, but I can find forgiveness for my sins when I repent because Christ died for my allmy sins, past, present, and future. I believe that repentance brings one back to the submission of Christ. Not that He demands us to be slaves to his will, but he calls us to a different standard than the rest of the world. For me, repentance is more than just feeling bad about doing something bad. Repentance is about recognizing that something bad was done which is followed by the desire to live a better life.
While talking to Randy about repentance he mentioned that one word (repentance) does not acknowledge the essence of what the word means because it is about a combination of more than one thing. Randy does not practice repentance in his life because he views it in a religious context. He views repentance as taking place in a religious service, therefore he does not try to correct himself because he does not see it as necessary to ask God for forgiveness. For Randy, “repentance” is about acknowledging that one has done wrong. For Randy, repentance is not about the change that spirituality brings about.
Peace defines repentance as changing our minds and about deciding to give up a bad behavior and replace it with a better behavior. Repentance simply means “to change your mind”. Based on this definition I asked Randy to talk about a time in his life when he had repented about doing something. I wanted to know the hard times Randy had faced and what kind of decisions he had made to make things better for his life. He mentioned that he had done a lot of drugs when he was younger (16 or 17), but he latter realized that he wanted something better for his life. He realized that he needed change in his life and the way he found it was through maturity and different associations. His change (repentance) came about through logic and being rational. This does not mean that he avoided everything in life, but when he compromised his logic or rational (what I call sin) then he allowed the experience to take charge, but what is important is that one goes through it with wisdom in order not to do evil and hurt the self.
Sticking with the theme of experiences and what their outcome is, we started talking about how our actions affect other people. I asked Randy how could he be the type of person that would bring insight to others in order to open ways for change. Randy mentioned he would lead others through knowledge. he mentioned that through knowledge, leaders and intelligent people have guided others. He stated “do not take my or any religious word for it, but let your own mind lead you to your destiny”. Which this idea is a challenge to what I believe. It is not a bad challenge but in a way it goes against what I believe faith is. Faith and repentance is not about knowledge because that means that we want to be our own god’s.
The image of repentance for Randy and me is very different and we go about it in very different ways. Randy and I recalled the time when we were Catholic and used to see people on their knees because they were repenting for something they had done. Repentance has different meanings and pats for me and Randy. Randy goes about repentance through knowledge and change, but I experience repentance through submission and change. Both of our ideas of repentance bring about change in our lives because we know that the one we are hurting the most is ourselves. We are both aware that our journey of repentance looks very different and we go about it in different ways, but we both realize that repentance and change in our lives is essential for our development as human beings.
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