Posts Tagged ‘Metanoia’
[19APRIL2012] Eastertide Devotional Series
April 19, 2012 | 
Author [19APRIL2012] Eastertide Devotional Series
I will be posting this devotional series as part of my Eastertide reflections for the next three weeks (see this link for other installments in the series). Each week of this devotional series focuses on a specific theme (week one: brokenness, week two: repentance, and week three: renewal). I hope you’ll enjoy the series and I invite you to comment here on the blog or email me direct; I would love to hear your thoughts.
Repentance: Week 2 | Day 5
Scripture Reading: Genesis 32:22-32, 47:27-31; Exodus 13:17-22
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God…”
Something that has occurred to me as I’ve studied and meditated on the idea of repentance is that it isn’t just a “change” or “turn.” Repentance is also “on the move.” If all we do is turn and stay where we are, we’ll end up with our “bones scattered over the desert” and never arrive at the destination of our journey (see again from Wk. 1-Day 2. Hebrews 3:1-19). In fact, if we’re not moving, we’ll never have journeyed at all.
While I might be stretching the metaphor a teeny bit, I think we can see this moving repentance in the lives of some of the patriarchs of our faith. Abraham was one of the first fathers of our faith we encounter and see moved by their repentance; Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all followed their fathers and grandfathers in this moving experience. With each of these examples, we see men who are moved… their minds are changed and their directions reoriented so they are always on the move. Abraham had been given a promise—a destination which he never fully realized, but he trusted God and he allowed God to continue moving him…literally, living as a nomad in a land that was not fully his own, but also moving closer to the presence and image of God as he matured spiritually. Isaac, son of Abraham, appears to have followed the lifestyle of his father as he and his family also moved under the influence and guiding hand of God. The life of Jacob provides us with a clearer picture of what personal repentance looks like and the ultimate effect it has on a person who remains submitted and surrendered to God. Jacob, born with the name “deceiver” comes face-to-face with God. During the course of this epic wrestling match, Jacob is changed and given a new name, Israel (means God fights). The rest of Jacob’s life is spent in surrender to the will and way of God…with the visible evidence of this surrender seen in a limp he obtained from a busted hip when he wrestled with God. Other evidence of Jacob’s surrender is seen through his humility and obedience to God. When Jacob “turned” he “changed” and was “on the move” for the remainder of his life…on the move from place to place physically and also spiritually as God revealed more of Himself to Israel.
Repentance isn’t static and it doesn’t come with tent stakes. With a change of heart, mind, and direction comes new destination coordinates. While the destination may seem the ultimate goal, it is the journey of transformation that fuels us onward and upward; thus, it too becomes part of and just as important as the ultimate goal. The journey is often as important as the destination. Jacob and Joseph knew this and it is the reason they made their sons promise not to leave their bones in Egypt. Four hundred and seventy years later, their bones were delivered into the Promised Land. Repentance: it changes us, turns us and reorients our direction, and ultimately moves us into God’s promises. Are you moving closer to God? Is your repentance more static or more moving? How would you describe your journey of change?
Our Prayer Lord, I admit that sometimes when we have “wrestled” and I have surrendered to You, I’ve felt that is the extent of my responsibility. I haven’t realized I needed to move, and part of my submission and repentance included moving or ongoing transformation. I prefer the relaxed feeling that comes with “arriving.” I know now that I need to keep moving…with You and closer to You until you bring me to the place You want me to be. Amen.
[17APRIL2012] Eastertide Devotional Series
[17APRIL2012] Eastertide Devotional Series
I will be posting this devotional series as part of my Eastertide reflections for the next three weeks (see this link for other installments in the series). Each week of this devotional series focuses on a specific theme (week one: brokenness, week two: repentance, and week three: renewal). I hope you’ll enjoy the series and I invite you to comment here on the blog or email me direct; I would love to hear your thoughts.
Repentance: Week 2 | Day 3
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:8-9, Deuteronomy 30:1-10
“The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.”
When I read and consider these passages of Scripture this morning, I have several thoughts and mental pictures come to mind. The first thing that pops into my head are memories of me as a kid. My mom and dad didn’t buy a lot of junk food snacks when my sisters and I were growing up. The main reason wasn’t their poor nutritional value, but that we would gorge ourselves on a whole box of Ding-Dongs as soon as they’d come in. Mom would surprise us with these chocolatey crème-filled goodies and say, “Don’t eat them all!” She’d even hide them sometimes. She knew what we’d do as soon as she turned her back. I hate to admit it, but when confronted about eating a whole box of Ding-Dongs, I’d sit there…chocolate in teeth and deny having eaten them.
These passages remind me of this childhood memory because of the way God speaks to His people.
1 ”In the future, when you experience all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the nations to which the LORD your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions. 2 If at that time you and your children return to the LORD your God…” Deut. 30:1-2 (see also Deut. 6:10-12)
God knew the fickleness of people’s faith and obedience… Just like my mom knew what I would do when she turned her back. Even worse than our propensity to be disobedient when given the opportunity, especially when we think someone isn’t watching, is our attempt to deceive ourselves in the process.
Isaiah 29 – 13 And so the Lord says, ”These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me
Matthew 15 – 8 ”These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 Their worship is a farce…”
I suppose one of my takeaways from today’s reading is a “discomforting comfort” in the knowledge that God knows me…even better than my mom knows me. God knowing me, and knowing I’m likely going to fail Him doesn’t turn Him away from me. Quite the contrary, He provides me with hope and encourages me to repent, change my mind, and turn back to Him. If I will do this (read all of Deut. 30:1-10), He will restore me AND “delight in me”…but it begins with a change of mind and a turn back to Him.
Our Prayer: Lord God, You know me. You know I am prone to failure and turning away from You. Yet, You love me still. Your call to me is to “Repent, and come back.” Lord help me and save me from my desires to wander and stray. Help my ears hear Your call to “come back.” Today I recognize my words don’t always reflect my actions. I say I love you, but I don’t always put You first. Today I say I’m sorry and make my first steps back to You.
[15APRIL2012] Eastertide Devotional Series
[15APRIL2012] Eastertide Devotional Series
I will be posting this devotional series as part of my Eastertide reflections for the next three weeks (see this link for other installments in the series). Each week of this devotional series focuses on a specific theme (week one: brokenness, week two: repentance, and week three: renewal). I hope you’ll enjoy the series and I invite you to comment here on the blog or email me direct; I would love to hear your thoughts.
Repentance: Week 2 | Day 1
Scripture Reading: Mark 1:1-15
“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. ”The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”
Today we transition our focus to a new week and theme centered on the idea of repentance. I don’t know if everyone has had the same experience as I have, but for many years of my life I had an inaccurate understanding of what repentance meant. Because of my misunderstanding, not only did my faith flounder, but the overall experience of my Christian journey was rather miserable. Fortunately, a few years back I went through a series of studies that helped me get a more accurate view of what repentance involves. Now, my experience as a disciple of Jesus is much more life-giving.
In the circles I have traveled, the word “repent” has been one of those words used almost exclusively in the world of Christian faith. I don’t think I can recall a time or place I have heard it used otherwise. My previous understanding of repent or repentance was based on context clues of how the word was used. The resulting definition I came up with was that it meant for me to feel bad about the things I did that God didn’t like. The seemingly appropriate and accompanying action to this feeling was for me to tell God I was sorry and ask Him to forgive me. Most of the Christians I hung out with and went to church with pretty much believed or supported the same idea or so it seemed that way to me.
The problem I began to realize about this way of understanding repentance is that it didn’t change my life much, it just made me feel bad about my life most of the time. It seemed I was forever feeling bad about myself and always asking God to forgive me for doing things He didn’t like… until I realized my view of repentance was all wrong.
What I learned about repentance is this; it meant much more than feeling bad about the things I did. I found out the actual definition meant for me to “change my mind.” The resulting action of “changing my mind” would be to do things differently or to “turn” and live my life by “moving” in a new direction. Maybe this is a no-brainer, but it was like the light bulb turned on in my head. As I began making conscious decisions about the choices and direction of my life, choosing to follow the way of Jesus instead of the “way of me,” my Christian experience began to be a more positive experience. The perfect love of God began to cast out my fear… guilt and shame went with it.
Have you always had a “right” view of repentance? Do you struggle with choices and direction in your life that leave you with feelings of guilt, shame, and fear?
Our Prayer: Jesus, you told us to “repent” and “believe,” but at times I have struggled with both. I have failed to fully understand repentance and my ability to follow you whole-heartedly has suffered because of it. I pray You will help me to “change my mind” about the choices I make that do not take me in Your direction. It is my desire to learn to love you with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength. I know repentance is a big part of my ability to succeed in this desire. Amen.
Starting Fresh… In the Last Days
[01JAN2012] Starting Fresh… In the Last Days
I don’t like New Year Resolutions. It’s nothing personal, but the temporary nature of them and the reality that I’ve hardly met anyone that has actually kept one or more resolutions is cause enough to make me not take them seriously. My dislike is intensified even more when New Year Resolutions are married to developing Christian faith or engaging in spiritual disciplines. I know the majority of people who do the “resolution” thing make them with the best of intentions, so I’m not slamming on people that make resolutions… I’m slamming on a culture that creates an environment where “change resolutions” are necessary. And, I’m slamming on a culture that makes it almost impossible for a person to keep the resolutions they make.
I think the attitude that is needed is not to make a resolution or two…or three… or whatever, but resolve to live differently entirely. The word and the attitude is “metanoia” (Greek, from metanoiein to change one’s mind, repent). The idea metanoia conveys in the English is a transformative change of heart; especially a spiritual conversion. This represents a substantial shift in thinking from making a “New Year Resolution.” Unfortunately, a resolution (anymore) is reduced to “I’ll give it a shot” mentality; whereas, metanoia represents a change of heart and mind.
Speaking honestly, no matter your choice or frame of mind… whether you choose to make a “resolution” or if you choose a real change in the way you focus your life (metanoia), you will be faced with serious challenges. Culture, friends, and spiritual powers and principalities are working against you. Enlisting a faithful friend of like mindedness will be valuable; having the support of a God-centered faithful community will be even more valuable.
We live in difficult times. A few days into this New Year and the days will have returned to their dizzying pace—life moving at warp speed. The noises of life will be screaming for your attention with every step you take; without a full on change of heart and mind, resolutions don’t stand a chance. I think Thomas Merton puts our plight in perspective.
We live in the time of no room, which is the time of the end. The time when everyone is obsessed with the lack of time, lack of space, with saving time, conquering space, projecting into time and space the anguish produced within them by the technological furies of size, volume, quantity, speed, number, price, power and acceleration.
The primordial blessing, “increase and multiply,” has suddenly become a hemorrhage of terror. We are numbered in billions, and massed together, marshaled, numbered, marched here and there, taxed, drilled, armed, worked to the point of insensibility, dazed by information, drugged by entertainment, surfeited with everything, nauseated with the human race and with ourselves, nauseated with life.
As the end approaches, there is no room for nature. The cities crowd it off the face of the earth.
As the end approaches, there is no room for quiet. There is no room for solitude. There is no room for thought. There is no room for attention, for the awareness of our state.
In the time of the ultimate end, there is no room for man.
Those that lament the fact that there is no room for God must also be called to account for this. Have they perhaps added to the general crush by preaching a solid marble God that makes man alien to himself, a God that settles himself grimly like an implacable object in the inner heart of man and drives man out of himself in despair?
The time of the end is the time of demons who occupy the heart (pretending to be gods) so that man himself finds no room for himself in himself. He finds no space to rest in his own heart, not because it is full, but because it is void. If only he knew that the void itself, when hovered over by the Spirit, is an abyss of creativity…yet he cannot believe it. There is no room for belief. -Thomas Merton
1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
Slow down. Stop. Be Still. Be Quiet. Make a change that will be lasting.
Posted in Disciple, Incarnational, Liturgical Year, Meditations, Spiritual Formation, Spirituality, The Liturgical Year | 
Tags: 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Change of Heart, Metanoia, New Year, Repent, Thomas Merton | 
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