Yom Kippur is now behind us, but repentance is still on my mind. I realize it is something I need to consider throughout the year. Last week we looked at the Hebrew word teshuva, to turn, and how we need to turn away from sin. Often, in my mind, I see repenting as doing a 180, an about face, but sometimes it’s more subtle.
I have a camping trip I enjoy with good friends every fall. It becomes a time for me to step back and reset from the year before and consider the year ahead. It’s a time I can rest, looking at things objectively from outside the situation. I talk to God, listen, repent, set new directions or reaffirm current directions, maybe with some tweaks.
After walking with God for many years, I find that there are not as many areas that require from me a full about face in the direction I am moving. If I am willing to listen, He fine tunes my path, moving it ever straighter towards Him. The path established, while I sometimes stray from it, is set in the direction toward God. But I find, with the distractions of life, that the course might begin to lean just slightly off track. My friend, Debbie, calls that a “one off.” If Satan can persuade us off our course even by one degree, in the long run, we shoot past our target missing it completely. Repenting, then, could be an about face or it might be a slight turn of direction.
If I’m not careful, I can let the natural pull of events and demands around me alter my course, almost imperceptibly. As I evaluate where I’m going, I need to be listening to Him, through the Bible, through prayer, and through His people. I need to check the priorities in my life, even the good ones, to see if they should still take precedence during this season of my life. I want to keep my eye on the goal and keep moving straight toward my Lord.
“…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…” Hebrews 12:1-2
