Rationalizing Repentance

So much is at stake in life—the whole everlasting future before us, that persisting in unrepentance is exceedingly shortsighted. And following one mistake with more or many more, on the assumption that one more won’t matter, is a foolish and hazardous position to take. Repentance is more than the remorse of being caught, more than the uneasiness of an uncomfortable conscience. Repentance is more than regaining comfort and composure. It may include these, but it is much more. The evidence of real repentance is turning away from, making right, if possible, what we have done wrong, a change of life, of heart, a genuine and real reversal inside ourselves. Sometimes pride keeps people from repenting because it requires humility, or the humiliation of admitting a mistake. Sometimes rationalizing—self-justification—keeps people from repenting—saying that “after all, it’s only a little thing,” or “we were put under pressure,” or “we weren’t so bad considering the circumstances,” or “considering that others are worse.” Sometimes rationalizing says that some day we will repent, someday we will do differently at some more convenient time. Persisting in some practice only so long as it pleases, turning from it only when it has lost its attraction, or only late in life, is better than later, and better than never. But so long as a person rationalizes to the point of justifying his errors, or to the point of postponing repentance, he has yet to prove the sincerity of his intent. These searching thoughts from Isaac Meier are worth remembering: “Whoever talks about and reflects upon an evil thing he has done, is thinking the vileness he has perpetrated, and what one thinks, therein is one caught…Stir filth this way or that, and it is still filth…” he said “that is why it is written: “Depart from evil, and do good’—turn wholly from evil, do not brood in its way,…You have done wrong? Then balance it by doing right.