Repentance is possible because life has an unwavering urge towards truth. Anything and anyone in need of repentance has done something that is out of step with the truth of life.

The sooner we recognize this misstep and ask, beg, or choose to reorient to life’s natural integrity, the sooner grace is given.

Repentance seems to become impossible the longer we refuse to recognize our missteps. The longer we go on living upon our unholy foundations, the structures we’ve erected become scarier to topple, so we persist with what we have, molding ourselves to them, inventing more complex narratives to account for our choices.

Who ever wants to admit that any part of their life has been based on a lie?

We fudge the books, so that our own accounting tallies up to the balance we wish it were, instead of eradicating every false beam and brick of our own making and letting ourselves be accountable to the only one who knows.

As soon as we let God make sense of who we are and what we’ve done, when we stop justifying ourselves, and let ourselves be guided back to union with him, repentance can complete its aim and bring us home, solidly in life’s holy flow.

It’s available at every moment. No matter how extensive our complex web of lies or impregnable our fortress of self-preservation, the moment we break through, recognize our lack and the damage we’ve done,and willingly accuse ourselves of our failings, our freedom begins. When we atone for all the ways we have broken the world and caused harm, we rise to action and repair what we broke, restore what we marred, as goodwill efforts to prove to ourselves that we have a brokenhearted wish to be forgiven for our errors and a real commitment to never sin again. In this process, through grace, we are made whole.

by dc
August 3, 2022