Repurpose Repentance

For many in our community, ‘repentance’ is a trigger word. It brings up past experiences with spiritual authority figures shaming us for everything from our choice of clothes to our weight or our sexual identity. First off, let me (Bill writing here) say this unequivocally as a pastor: I am sorry. People like me (and me, myself) have used ‘repentance’ as a bully pulpit for shaming, and that’s just plain wrong.

But perhaps there’s a way to repurpose the word and/or the idea. So let’s look at this short phrase from Jonah:

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. - Jonah 2:8-9

There’s plenty to say about this brief line in Jonah’s prayer (for example, Jonah can’t quite name that he’s talking about himself, there seems to be some shaming going on here, etc.), but we’re going to focus on the approach to repentance that Brenna talked about yesterday.

Did you notice what we turn away from when we are in need of repentance? We ‘turn away from God’s love’ - wow! So let’s stop and pay attention to that. If our problem is turning away from God’s love, then what is repentance? Repentance just means ‘turning away from,’ after all. So we need to turn away from turning away from love. In other words, repentance is simply a return to love.

One of the things you can do with this information is to sort of ‘file’ it so that when you hear the word ‘repentance’ you mentally translate it into ‘return to love.’ Another thing you can to do right now is to sort through your heart and mind and see if there are some areas where you might need to return to love. Have you wandered into some practices that are unhealthy? Into some mindset that is toxic? Some way of relating to others that’s limiting their or your flourishing? Perhaps you could take some time to talk with Jesus now about returning to love instead.