Try a little repentance

you must have something on your mind Lord

 

today I picked up two books

one by an Irish poet, who as a gay man has a unique perspective

the other by an rouge America Roman Catholic

 

both books just happened

to talk about repentence

 

Richard Rohr noted that repentance is nothing more an nothing less that

“a radical transformation” of the mind which reveals a new world

 

Padraig O’ Tuama too points to transformation

“metanoia” he notes (the Greek word for repentance)

“means to change your thoughts, to change your mind, to turn in a new direction,

 to reverse a direction, and go a different way”

 

“Hello” he says, “to changing our minds…Hello to new directions”

 

it occurs to me that we are in the throes of change

and it is obvious that change is difficult

it comes out of pain

it creates pain

 

and so it comes slowly

with some leading the way

the “great souls” as Rohr calls them, who get there first

with most of us stumbling long behind

trying to catch up

 

and then those souls who, frightened perhaps,

misinformed, mislead

fight change, often with every fiber of their being

 

In thinking about repentance it occurs that the spiritual

Process of repentance is kind of like the scientific method

 

Often, in science, the goal is not to prove a hypothesis, but to disprove

As O’ Tuama notes, “written into the heart of science is the embrace of the gift of being wrong”.

 

It takes a special kind of integrity to admit you are wrong when you thought you were correct.

 

This is the integrity of the scientists who in their earliest directives about Covid

Said masks are not important

But now say, they are critically important

 

We must be able to “repent,” if we are going to progress

It does not matter if you are a scientist

A politician

A parent

A student

Or a follower of Jesus

 

we should be people who are open to being wrong

to changing our thoughts, our minds

our direction

 

as we think of repentance we often think of “sin”

The Greek word for sin is hamartia, to miss the mark

 

We have to be willing to see when we have missed the mark

and then change

and we have to engage in the discipline of testing, constantly

 

is what I am doing work

is my mindset one that is healthy and hopeful

 

perhaps the great test is simply

what is my mindset, what are my behaviors producing

what are the fruits?

 

Has what I have been thinking produced joy? Hope? Love

Has what I have been doing lifted people up, or beaten them down?

Is this home, this community, this state, this nation, a better place because of what I have been thinking, saying, doing…  or is it worse?

 

We have to be honest to God, honest to ourselves

And when we are wrong…. Repent

Seek that transformation that turns us around

and gets us going a new direction

 

If I don’t do that, I won’t get better

If our nation doesn’t do that, it won’t get better

If the church doesn’t do that….

 

When Gandhi visited Britain and English politician asked him,

“What do you think of Christianity”

Gandhi answered…

“It’s a nice idea”

 

Our faith will never be what it can be

If we are not ready to repent

To say, not just ‘I might be wrong”

But “I was wrong”

 

we will always struggle with this

because we are so profoundly self-centered

 

this makes our learning curve slow

it is hard to let go

difficult to admit fault

painful even

 

but if we want our faith to go from being a “nice idea’

to being something that creates positive change

we must find the freedom to be wrong

and discover the God induced capacity

to change direction

 

no matter the cost