Macon commented on my post from the other day, asking for further discussion of repentance versus regret. Then he re-posted and further clarified his own thoughts and questions yesterday, but by that point the train was already rolling in my head. So I'll just post a few random (but deeply profound) thoughts that I've been having and I'll let Macon put the "u" back in dialogue with his own witty insights.
Here they are, in no particular order:
*First, thank God for regret. In a fallen world full of people born far from God where sin is at work in every single interaction and relationship (from dating relationships to the relationship your heart has with your lungs that will eventually cause both to stop working), if it weren't for the common mercy of regret operating in most everyone's lives the world would indeed be a far more hellish place. The criminals that disturb us the most are the ones who come to sentencing with little or no remorse or regret.
*So regret, then, is natural. It even can serve a good purpose in the culture at large to keep us from falling too far afield in our tendency towards amorality. In some ways, it makes us own the problem--whatever that problem might be.
*But on the other hand, regret is a cancer. It's miserable, poisonous, laborious, de-humanizing, immobilizing, debilitating, overwhelming, and cause for much misery, anxiety, and pain in life. Regret tends to freeze us in one place for the rest of our lives--that one moment or that series of decisions.
*Repentance, however, takes the concept of ownership of the problem and moves it several steps beyond to actually being free of the problem. Repentance recognizes ownership of the problem. I'm not just a victim of circumstance but I've actually done or not done something that I should have (this is assuming that there's actually genuine reason for regret, not just a false regret that I should have over-achieved more or slept with more people or whatever--the differences between genuine regret and false regret are like the differences between genuine guilt and false guilt--and that might be worth another post altogether).
Repentance moves beyond ownership of the problem to some place altogether unexpected: a radical dis-owner-ship of the problem. It is honestly and genuinely no longer my problem to "fix." This happens through confession (always to the Lord, often beneficial when offered to a person as well although us evangelicals don't like to hear that too much), and then the actual u-turn, the change of mind, the change of direction in behavior through the power of the Holy Spirit. The thing done or un-done does not define us, it does not have ultimate power over us, it does not kill our joy or run or ruin our lives. It is brought into the light, dealt with at the cross, and then we trust that all things are being made new as we walk in the light as He is in the light.
Regret is the over-ownership of past mistakes in a way that immobilizes us. Repentance is movement, it is motion towards genuine forgiveness and change. A friend of mine talked about applying to grad school after several years stuck in a average jobs unsure what to do next. He made the parallel that many sharks must constantly be in motion in order for their gills to take water and turn it into oxygen. When regret freezes us, we suffocate. Repentance keeps us moving, giving us oxygen for our lives.
*Of course, there are false movements that do not deal with the actual problem. Stoicism and hedonism are simply two sides of the same coping mechanism coin. Stoicism attempts to will or pretend the problems away through denial; hedonism attempts to drink the problem away. Neither actually takes care of the problem. Both are simply props. In repentance we are free to grieve over sin but not linger in it. We are also free to laugh and be merry, but not in a way that hides from the gravity of what has happened.
We own and then we dis-own the problem--that's repentance in light of an active and living God who really is making all things new. Apart from a life lived in that reality, living a life loaded with regrets and/or loaded with shallow coping strategies really are the only options. This is why Christianity and the story of the God coming to take away and actually deal with sin makes sense as the only real solution to the human predicament. All other "solutions" (be they religions, psycho-analysis, political, economic, educational or recreational) still leave us stuck.
*Alas, many people in the church use their faith as a prop similar to stoicism or hedonism rather than a place of genuine transformation and healing. This is like using the bottle of Pepto-Bismol to prop open the bathroom door so you can get there quicker rather than drinking the contents and dealing with the upset stomach.
Repentance, owning the problem, confessing it, moving in a new direction in the power of the Spirit, is strong medicine for a world cluttered with brokenness and our own part in contributing to the mess of all of it. Oh that Christians would live in the power and freedom of repentance in a world full of regrets.
No comments:
Post a Comment