This again might fly into the realm of a strictly Christian topic, but I hope that it can be useful to other faiths as well. I am also rehashing some of the things I wrote about two months ago, but it is a topic that has been at the forefront of my mind.
So often when we hear the term Repent we think of someone holding a sign that reads: "Repent! The End is Near!" We, as a culture, have been led to believe that to repent is to give something up, to turn away from Sin, to perfect ourselves. In the Today's English Version translation of the bible, the translation present in the Good News Bible, the translator, in Luke 3:3, actually translates repentance as turning away from sin. When we do this, we are missing so much of what repentance is and what John the Baptist is calling us to do.
I acknowledge that i am channeling Calvin here, (Book three, Chapter three of Calvin's Institutes of Christian Religion) but Repentance is less about turning away from Sin, and more about turning towards God.
Its easy to say, is there a difference, if we are turning towards God, aren't we turning away from sin? Sort of, but there is a subtle distinction.
By turning towards God, we are allowing ourselves to be embraced by God's love, to walk in the paths of God, to remind ourselves that all good comes from God. We focus on becoming the Hands and Feet of God in the world, spreading the love we feel.
When we focus instead on the idea of repentance as turning away from Sin, our focus becomes sin. We try to deny ourselves, we strive for perfection, it becomes a personal quest. When we strive for perfection, we deny our whole selves, we too easily slip into what modern psychology calls burying emotions. When we bury our sins, they have a tendency to present themselves at inopportune times. We become two people instead of just one, the one that we put out in the real world, the one that appears perfect, while our shadow self lurks in dark corners, engaging in the very activities we become ashamed of.
This is not to try and say there are not bad things that we can do. Sin is real, we make mistakes, but at the same time we have to acknowledge that the Law, although perfect and good, is impossible to attain completely. Even the clearest of commandments, thou shall not kill, we can all think of a myriad of instances were killing is clearly not wrong, like in moments of self defense, or even to go as far as to say killing an animal to survive, yet there is is clear as day, thou shall not kill.
We are going to sin whether we like it or not, we are going to make mistakes in this life, no matter how "together" or "healthy" we are. That being said, i think its easy to agree that we would all like to sin less.
The good news is that when we repent, when we turn to God, when we commit to God, we do sin less. The better we are at following the paths of God, in other words, the more we meditate, the more we listen, the more we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, the less we sin, the more good we do in the world.
I believe this can be a universal message, don't focus so much on the sin half of the equation, trying to be perfect all the time, focus more on the listening half of the equation, striving to unite with God.
For those of us on the left handed path, away from the safety of the village, we have probably seen some real sin, maybe we have even allowed ourselves to be complacent or involved in real sin. Within the safety of the village, sin does not present itself in the same way. It can be easier to shield oneself from sin, or to pretend like it doesn't exist. Think of the way drug addiction or alcoholism is approached in small towns or "gated communities", or maybe even worse, domestic violence.
For those of us on the left handed path, when we come in community with those on the right handed path, much like John the Baptist in the bible, we have the opportunity to remind people of this. Much like John the Baptist's first response to the question of how do we repent; if you have two coats, give one away.
The tendency to focus on Sin, instead of God is all too common. We on the left handed path have something to offer, we can help refocus those we meet on along the way on God.
