It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Elliot
Lately, I have been thinking about the concept of repentance. It is a core tenet of the Judeo-Christian faith, its entry point in fact. The idea that you can make a 180-degree change. You can go down one path for the longest time, and all of a sudden, you change and go down a different one. It is the idea of dramatic change. That is the promise of Christ’s message. That no matter how bad you have been, no matter how far you have fallen, no matter how ignorant you have been in your actions and approach to life, there is hope. There is potential for change.
To repent is to turn away, from one course of action and follow another. It is a promise that your past does not have to be your future, that your mistakes do not have to define you. And when you combine that with the concept of substitution, that you can trade in your raggedy-ass self, your less than ideal behavior, and take on the perfect ideal that is Christ instead, you get something profoundly powerful. It doesn’t mean an instant change, even though that is possible, but it speaks to a spark, an awakening, an enlightenment, a cracking open of a hurt soul, so the light can get in and heal.
We know that the way you view yourself influences how you behave, what you go after and what you even think is possible for you. The concepts of repentance and substitution allow you to simultaneously get off one track and adopt a new better one. And the more you walk in this new light and nurture it, the more solid the change becomes, the more this new nature emerges.
But first you have to accept, and then you have to release. You have to admit the mistake and you have to ask and accept forgiveness. If you keep knocking yourself down, playing your mistakes over and over again, you start to punish yourself. Most times you do it subconsciously, shying away from things you should do and be because you do not feel worthy. And then you keep repeating the pattern because you are stuck. You take on the identity of your mistakes, not as things you do, but who you are. You continue to spiral down the less than ideal path.
To change is to forgive. To accept the wrong, to set it aside letting go of all the hurt and negativity around it, and to pick up the right. In Christianity, Christ’s forgiveness is only a prayer away. A true prayer, born of true remorse, born of pure intent. But even if you are not there yet, even when you still like your mistakes, knowing they are not good for you, a simple request for help will do, you can ask for a change of heart, for an evolution of your nature.
The hope here is that you don’t have to be what you have always been. You can be more. You can change. You can be better. And you don’t have to let anyone, even yourself, hold your mistakes against you. If God has forgiven you, surely you can forgive yourself, and sometimes that is the hardest thing. But until there is forgiveness, there can be no progress.
It might take a long way to become the person we want to be, but the fact remains, the great hope, that you don’t have to be what you have always been. You can be more. You can embrace your potential for change.
So good