Repentance as change

[Anonymous]

I mentioned this BYU devotional speech by Elder Weatherford Clayton of the Seventy from a couple months back on another thread. The Rock of Our Redeemer

I have used the following quote in my last two talks and it was also referenced by my SP:

Quote:

As we act on His words, we are doing something called repenting. In the New Testament, repentance comes from the word metanoeó, from the words metá and noeó, meaning “to change one’s mind or purpose.” Isn’t that interesting?

Every time we turn more to Christ, we are repenting—we are following Him. When we sincerely pray to the Father, in a very real sense we are repenting. When we read the scriptures and ponder them, we are repenting. As we make changes because of what we are learning about Christ and His gospel, we are repenting. When we do things that make us better, kinder, gentler, more sensitive, more spiritual, more virtuous, and truer, we are repenting. Whenever we choose the better path, we are repenting. Though we all repent of things that are sinful in our lives, most of our repenting comes from hearing His words and doing them—from turning to Him. This builds our foundation, and we want that foundation to be as big and as wide and as deep and as sturdy as possible.

I did hear this speech as it was given, and this part jumped out at me then. For the record I discovered it before my SP did, so I was surprised that he also referenced it and we chatted a bit about it. He and I both felt this put a different perspective on the idea of repentance. I’m interested in hearing the perspective of others here.

There is another quote I really like in this talk and I’ll share it just because I can:

Quote:

When a person comes to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and hears Their words and lives by them, he is building his house upon the rock. And regardless of Satan’s efforts to destroy it, this type of house won’t fall. Why? Because it is built upon “the Rock.” We build our house upon our Savior and Redeemer, who is “[our] rock, and [our] fortress”; “[our] everlasting God, [our] rock and [our] salvation”; “the rock [from] whence ye are hewn”; “a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation”; “that spiritual Rock”; “the Rock of Heaven”; “the stone of Israel.” Our Savior has always been and, as we follow Him, can always be our Rock.

[Anonymous]

I like these quotes.

I think repentance is very important to our journey of faith.

While I can discover some things about the church that are distasteful to me, and try to stay grounded in a middle way of keeping my faith grounded in truth not tradition, I have always felt it important to continually repent and rely on God to guide me, assuming I am screwing up a lot along the way, and need to be willing to bend my will to God’s will on things that matter.

And also…not feel obligated to repent for things that don’t matter.

It is important to keep changing, not just stay as I am and ask the church to change for me.

DarkJedi wrote:

Every time we turn more to Christ, we are repenting—we are following Him.

:thumbup:

[Anonymous]

I wrote the following nine years ago. It might sound arrogant, but I recommend reading them, since they deal with this exact topic:

“A Fresh View of Repentance” – http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/01/rethinking-repentance.html

“More Thoughts on Repentance” – http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-thoughts-on-repentance.html

[Anonymous]

This feels so much more like a loving Father type “repentance” than the usual “You are evil” type that often gets portrayed again and again.

In the “evil” version, yes we return to Christ or Heavenly Father, but so often it’s a guilty return. Or a “You have fallen behind in your efforts and need to make up from this time forward.” Yet we also say “No one is perfect” or “There is only one perfect” but it never feels that way.

With this I am encouraged. Turning to God/Jesus is now an invite. Not a death sentence. When I read it I also took away the idea that if all I ever did was work on the first two commandments and nothing else, I would still be repenting or connecting, and still in good favor.

I loved the earlier reference and this added focus on this thread even more. Keeping it in my personal file.

[Anonymous]

As an agnostic deist, I feel that most of what I used to call the gospel (i.e. all the teachings of the Church, or correlation’s 72 core topics) isn’t well-motivated enough to keep. Repentance is one of the things I’m keeping.

Calling it “repentance” when we simply trade one behavior for a better one is good. Teaching repentance this way to my kids, who as a matter of personality would lean toward thinking that they’re evil and undeserving without being told this explicitly, is great. Thanks for this, DJ.

I don’t want to underemphasize acknowledging fault, apologizing for hurting others, and making restitution to the extent possible. Those things might not always be necessary for our own well-being, but they’re critical in reestablishing others’ trust in us. Counting on others to notice on their own that we’ve changed is counting on too much.

[Anonymous]

Old Timerw wrote:

I wrote the following nine years ago. It might sound arrogant, but I recommend reading them, since they deal with this exact topic:

“A Fresh View of Repentance” – http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/01/rethinking-repentance.html

I read through Curt’s blog and this caught my eye:

Quote:

I need to step back at this point and emphasize a critical point: Repentance IS a process of change that involves ridding ourselves of those tendencies that keep us from being Christ-like. It DOES include gaining control over those things that cause our transgressions. However, it does NOT need to be a guilt-inducing, depression-causing, overwhelming chore. That happens when repentance is viewed as the companion to the type of perfection that I described previously – when repentance comes to mean eliminating mistakes and walking completely in lock-step with a detailed list of do’s and dont’s without ever stumbling. Let me emphasize again that “repentance” means changing one’s VIEW about God, oneself and the world. It means SEEING the process differently

First of all, consistent with Curt’s conception of repentenec, in my pursuit of happiness, I have gotten rid of the guilt that comes from the church and its members/leaders. I feel guilty when I think I should feel guilty. I had a decision to make yesterday, and made it, and instantly afterwards felt guilty about it. It was wrong, and dishonest. I called the person back and said I had second thoughts and wanted to go at it a different way. I feel better now.

But to agument what I think Curt said…In normative ethics, a non-religious way of determining what is ethical behavior and what is not, there are questions you ask yourself about the ethics of a particular course of action. One of them is “how will I feel about myself after I do this?”..or “how do I feel about myself now that I have done X?”. That alone can guide you in deciding what to change, and what not to change.

But I don’t think the dark feelings alone are what should guide us in determining what to change. Maslow’s Self-Actualization is also a motivator and identifier of behavior we need to change. We have an ideal, some of us, of what we want to be. I want to be an an effective leader for the rest of my life. I’d love to be an effective leader in my industry where I transform schools in terms of retention, academic quality, student life etcetera. Are there eternal consequences for not developing the interpersonal, emotional intelligence and technical skill to do this? Definitely not! But it is something I want to do for myself. To experience that joy of becoming something you visualized. It’s Warren Bennis’s “re-invention of yourself”.

In fact, I think you could argue that in wanting to become a certain kind of effective leader, you, by necessity have to shed bad habits like lecherousness toward others, losing your temper, being dishonest — you simply won’t get the long-term results I am looking for if those faults are part of your character. The same could apply to wanting to be a good husband, good father, good neighbor. That is what you want to become, how might you step up to that role? It’s a much more positive way of changing your behavior than considering yourself a “bad person” and changing all those aspects of your character that aren’t consistent with being a “good person”.

Where does Christ play into this? I see Him as one of many different role models that we can emulate in our quest for self-actualization. He did have a dedication to service, to helping people heal after sin that bothered them, a healthy attitude toward government and power, a clear sense of mission, the ability to teach and develop others, and a humble, spiritual reliance on God. But for me, I would want to keep my eye on the goal of being effective in living my life’s mission, whatever that is, and seeing Christ as one example to help me get there.

There are others — Ghandi exposed traits that Christ didn’t that are worthy of emulation. He made quotes that I think are as inspiring as Christ’s. Even imperfect leaders I have reported to, like a Dean and Chair combination I worked with a few years ago, had a ton of imperfections, but they also had some sparkling talents that I have emulated.

I much prefer a model of repetence that is based on self-actualization toward some role that has a positive impact on society — for its own sake. Strip away what impairs you from beingeffective in that role, and that is part of repentance. But it is more than fixing the bad, it is about augmenting the good you have, and expanding your skills and talents into new areas that serve your mission. Now, that’s a kind of repentance I find inspiring. Not the groveling in the mud kind like I was used to pursuing as a young adult. The kind of repentence I am talking about doesn’t mean confession — it means self-reflection, investment in oneself to learn new skills, and hard work in trying to achieve something great. You learn about yourself in the process and make changes that help you self-actualize.

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