If you
are job hunting in the future, do not be surprised if you are asked to submit two
resumes: a traditional one that lists your accomplishments and a second one
that lists your failures. To a society
that spends a lot of time bragging about itself, a resume of mistakes may seem
like a silly idea, but we usually learn a lot more from failure than we do from
success. As well, the ability to deal
with disappointment and to adapt to unfavourable circumstances is a valuable
skill-set. Therefore, employers are wanting
to hear about a person’s full range of experience, rather than just the shiny,
cleaned up versions of themselves that show up on the traditional resumes.
That
sort of thinking and honestly would go a long way to helping the church as
well. Unfortunately, a quick look at
all the smiling faces on any given Sunday morning would make it hard to believe
that anyone struggles with anything. Too
often, we only see a fake, cleaned up version of one another and this is causing
the church to lose one of its most important messages: Repent!
To
repent simply means “to turn around” or “to go a different direction”. It is such an important concept, that it is
the very first word Jesus says when he starts teaching: “Repent, for the
kingdom of Heaven is near!” (Matthew 4:17). In fact, Jesus’ whole job was to call “sinners
to repentance” (Luke 5:32). The
disciples, in turn, “preached that people should repent” (Mark 6:12). Rather than hide our struggles, scripture says
that Christians ought to, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for each
other” (James 5:16).
These
days, because everyone is pretending to be perfect, it seems that no one
repents of anything, but that is wrong! Repentance
is not a one-time thing that you did forty years ago when you were baptized and
never think about again. Rather, it is an
on-going attitude that constantly allows us to get back on course and to help
one another.
Churches
will become more effective when we stop pretending to be something we are not and
admit our need for God’s power and his grace. When we understand that mistakes are part of
the growth process, we will acknowledge them, learn the lessons that they teach
and go a different direction.
After
all, Jesus came to turn us around.
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