DAY SEVEN - REPENTANCE = U-TURN

During Lent it is often customary to look at what bad habits we can break in order to live a more righteous life. The truth is anything that stands in the way of our relationship with God is sin...and the Bible says the wages of sin= death.

In order to live LIFE (not death) to the fullest I need to look at how to get rid of sin (death). And in order to do that I must look at what things are standing in the way of my relationship with Him, and move in the opposite direction.

The problem is we either sugar-coat our sin by saying it's not that big of a deal or we agonize that our sin is too big of a deal for God to ever forgive. Both are lies. The truth is sin is sin whether it's big or small. And God is a God that forgives and will always be holding His arms wide open to you no matter what you've done. (It's all right there in the Bible!)

If I desire this "life-giving" change in my life I do need to choose to be courageous and bold enough to repent. Repentance is merely turning around and walking in the opposite direction, sort of like a u-turn.

Today I stood in my kitchen trying to take in everything I could. There was nothing wrong with what I saw. In fact I have a beautiful kitchen with beautiful stainless-steel items, and some cute red pieces to accent the space perfectly. All in all, it is a pleasant sight. As an experiment, I quickly turned around. And I found myself looking out my kitchen window towards the sky. It was beautiful and bright and there was a bird flying through the sky. My whole perspective of my world changed, even though I was in the exact same spot, looking in a different direction.

Had I stayed facing my kitchen, my destination would be completely different than if I had turned around. While facing the kitchen I quite enjoyed the view. I contemplated how I had put a lot of effort into making it look nice and clean, and had spent money on the items in it to make it look well-put together - so it was actually a pleasure to look at... I was proud of what "I" had accomplished to create this space. Although I was content with the view of my kitchen, imagine what I would have missed out on if I hadn't just turned around! An experience that was even more life giving than I thought!

Looking out the kitchen window, I was actually mesmerised by the beauty - enthralled with the bird flying in long swoops, and peaceful with the whole scene. I began to compare moving forward this way with walking with God- and realised that I wouldn't just be moving in the opposite direction. I think, instead, if this was walking with God I would find myself doing something completely extraordinary like flying with the bird. That is what walking with God is like. Absolutely outside of your realm of thinking!

I think we often won't trust God enough to give us a better option than what we have before us. We con ourselves into thinking that what we have is good enough and tell ourselves it's not so bad. Sometimes life can whirl us around and we find ourselves facing many different directions. The challenge lies in finding the right direction - Gods plan - and having the guts to do it!

Repentance is the key - and God will guide us if we open our hearts to Him.