Posts Tagged: comebacks vs. setbacks
“Repenting of Not Repenting”
Our pastor preached a wonderful sermon today. It was all about coming back from setbacks. It was altogether a great message—especially after 2020. The best thing that most of us got out of 2020 was ourselves! And that is no small thing.
However, I was really intrigued and touched and moved to change by Pastor’s altar call. I was watching online, so I couldn’t go to our corporate altar, but I could and did kneel at my chair in front of my desk where I was listening.
So what was this challenging invitation? Pastor invited us to repent.
What?! That’s it! Isn’t repentance kind of an old-fashioned word? Who repents anymore? And do I need to repent?
However, our wise Man of God blockaded that exit in a hurry. “And if you don’t need to repent, you really need to repent!” he told us. That may not have been his precise words, but that was what I heard—heard and took to heart.
Have I done wrong things for which I need to repent? You bet! Have I wanted to do wrong things? Absolutely! And if I indulge those kinds of wants, if I ask them in for coffee, I most certainly need to repent of those desires.
And then, of course, there are all the good things that I have been too lazy to do. Need to repent of those too! (Well, maybe I am not so much lazy as I am busy. Nah, that’s a dodge! Much of my business is just laziness dressed up in nice clothes.)
So, on this third day of the Year of our Lord, 2021, I knelt and repented. I had a surprising amount of repentance to be doing for just three days into the new year, but there you go. Resentments, gluttony, lust, looking back too much, garden-variety selfishness: The list goes on and on, but I won’t. And then there was all the positive, godly, helpful things that I refused to do.
One of the lay leaders in our church wrapped up the service online by saying, “Repentance is not feeling sorry. Repentance is doing a one-eighty.” His wife is one of the fine leaders on staff on our church, but he’s pretty wise too.
So, I need to do a one-eighty and get moving in the right direction. This blog post is my pledge to God, to myself, and to you that this is precisely what I am doing.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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