When to Repent and Improve…

We are disposed to attach particular significance to certain times and seasons. We look to special days and anniversaries and events. We speak of special hours the eleventh hour, the midnight hour. We look to the clock and the calendar, and thus mark off the measures by which we live our lives.

Some hours and days and seasons have surely acquired special significance and many things we seem to start or stop, or note, at some particular point and these special times add their inducement to many things we do. All this is good or may be provided we don’t let waiting for particular times lead us to delay repentance and improvement.

Well would we decide at any time, for the better, to do differently. We could decide at any moment to settle some difference, or to do some service; to begin to diet, if we need to; or to start to pay a debt past due; to begin to break a bad habit; to do better, to learn better, to live better, and not leave such decisions to a special day, to a special hour, to a particular time far future.

And if we pass a particular time for repenting or improving, or if we falter or fail after having made a good resolution, we shouldn’t postpone repentance or improvement for another special day or hour, or for another such season. It is important now to be repenting, now to be improving, now to be moving in the desired direction, not with needless dramatics but with a simple quiet consistency.

Life is everlasting, and the direction in which we move is exceedingly important, and the timing is also. And whether it’s the New Year, or midnight, the eleventh hour or any other, there is no real reason for waiting for a special day, a special hour, or a special season to improve or to repent. When we need repentance, we need it now.