Repentance

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Repentance

What we are called upon to do in Steps Six through Nine is something called “repentance.”  Repentance is not a word most of us are very familiar with.  Nor is it a word we especially like when we do not know what it means.  Repentance smacks of sawdust trails, tears of confession, or men in white robes carrying signs urging repentance before the world ends.  It is a pity that such a significant New Testament word has been corrupted over time in how it is understood.  At its heart, the word repentance is neither archaic, cultic, nor emotional.  It simply defines an attitude that is vital to the process of growth.

To repent is to change our minds about how we are living.  Specifically, it is to decide not to live in a way that takes us away from God, but to turn around and start living God’s way.  Repentance emerges out of insight.  We can’t repent unless we see what is going on in our life.  Before we can change our minds about what we are doing, we have to see that what we have been doing is wrong.  Before we can change our ideas, we need to understand how they are in error.  Repentance cannot happen without insight.

Once we clearly see the issue, we can then decide how to deal with it.  We have two choices.  We can decide to carry on in the way we have been going.  In this case, we decide not to change.  Or we can decide to turn around from the old, destructive way and start following the new, constructive way.  The decision to turn away from the old towards the new is what is called repentance.  It is the decision to change.

While it is true that repentance is a cognitive decision (deciding to change), it is also true that this decision must be given expression in our lives.  This is where Steps Eight and Nine come in.  They show us how to act upon our decision to repent.  These steps ask us to make our repentance real in the world of our relationships.

Like most of the other steps we need to undertake, we take Steps Six through Nine not just once but continuously.  We keep seeing “defects of character” that need changing, we keep reaching out to God to change us, and we keep making amends to people we have hurt.  Repentance needs to become a style of life, not merely a single action.