The Privilege of Repentance

FREQUENTLY we hear people speak of making good resolutions, but not so frequently do we hear them speak of repenting. And yet, isn’t a sincere resolve to do better in the future the same as repenting of the past? There are many kinds of repentance and many things to repent of, both in moral and material matters. There is repentance for doing things in old and inefficient ways, repentance for holding tenaciously to outmoded methods, not because they are good, but because they are habitual. There could well be, for example, repentance by the man who has plowed and planted wastefully year after year, while ignoring all the knowledge that could help him make better use of his land. There could be repentance for perpetuating old fallacies, repentance for careless an inaccurate thinking, repentance for letting others do too much of our thinking, repentance for living beyond our means, repentance for blind prejudice. And always, of course, there may be need of repentance from evil-speaking, evil-thinking, and from other frequently mentioned moral offenses. In addition to perverse appetites, one of the things that most frequently gets in the way of repentance is false pride, which is one of the costliest things in the world. Often it would seem to be even more difficult to admit an error than it is to correct one. When once we have set out on a wrong road, it isn’t always easy to make the decision to turn around and begin over again. But neither pride nor stubbornness nor vanity should prevent our improving upon the past. If we can face the future with an earnest effort to profit by the mistakes we have made, and with an honest determination not to repeat them, we can give meaning and purpose to the years ahead. Call it repentance, call it good resolutions, call it what you will, we have cause to be exceedingly grateful for the privilege of repentance, for if there were no possibility of repentance or forgiveness, life would hold little hope for any of us.