A Big Little Word

In order to come to the manger there is something we must do.

To come and walk in faithfulness we must first repent. 

It is a little word but carries such a big meaning.

Not the moralistic meaning religious puritists have assigned to it. 

But life-transforming meaning. 

Repent is an imperative word. It means we have to actually “do” something. 

Repent means to change, to turn. 

Change directions. 

Change our loyalties. 

Change from feeling guilt to instead giving and exercising compassion. 

Change from focus on self to looking and caring for our neighbor.

Change from despair to buoyancy and hope. 

When Jesus uttered the word “repent” when he began his public ministry, he gave both an imperative and an authorization. 

We are now authorized to quit serving the old ways that bind us. Our old ways of thinking, old systems, old fears, old guilts, old debts. It is up to us to break the patterns that we are in. 

May we be ready. May we live with readiness to leave “what was” for “what can be.”
For we are now free to live into the light that permeates the contempt and distress that inhabits our lives and our world. This light will draw us out of the voids we often find ourselves in. The light is God’s gift of new power we can embrace as humanity. 

Repent. Turn. Change. And come to the manger. 

Vivacity and vitality of life awaits.