"be ye repenting"

I have just been listening to Charles Stanley. He constantly focuses on the need to repent. Of course, he's in good company, it was the first thing Jesus said after His baptism so it must be important. The Greek word used in this verse in Mark 1 is "metanoeite", which translates "be ye repenting". The root of this word is "metanoeo", which literally means "think differently afterward" or "after a change of mind".

The issue I have with Stanley's focus is he generally admonishes us to do things differently, take an about face. He does claim that we tend to go the way we think and that is true. But, our own change efforts generally migrate to our behavior, even when we realize what we read and watch can influence what we do. The problem we have is not misguided teaching per se, but that we have much more control over what we do than what we think. We can control what we read and watch, but the thoughts we have are difficult for us to control. This leaves us frustrated in that we try to repent by changing our behavior, BUT repentance is "to change our mind".

What does that mean? I know when I do something wrong but what's wrong with my mind? If I don't have a firm grip on what makes my mind what it is, how do i change it? For instance, the USA is founded on individual rights. So we value our rights and get upset when they are violated. In The Sermon on the Mount Jesus is describing the Kingdom of God and how citizens of this Kingdom think. He basically says we do not have rights in this world - if someone smacks one cheek, give them the other one to smack and the tunic and the cloak thingy. Later He says that the reward system of the Kingdom is not a fair exchange like wages but the result of the character of the reward giver (Grace). Often Jesus tells us that the currency of The Kingdom of Heaven is not equity but grace.

So you see when we make sense of our situations, ourselves and even our relationship with God though the lenses of equity, rights, and reciprocity, we have stinkin' thinkin' and need to repent - NOT of our behavior but our thinking that drives sense-making.

Repentance is thinking about events in our life and even our own existence with a heart of thanksgiving not obligation, a sense of faith that God has established our well being thru redemption and not our attempt to extract our well being from the world around us. Repentance is renewing our mind, not revamping our behavior (which will take care of itself).

  Because we can control our behavior easier and better than we can our thinking, without wanting to we are left in a "repentance legalism" that leads not to joy, but guilt and frustration. Repentance is freeing but requires significant disruption in our norms of morality and a willingness to let go of sense-making that we have been committed to much of our life. Our birth defect is our mind, our thinking, and that's why Jesus calls us to repentance, the genesis of our transformation in Grace. Now that's Good News, "the Gospel of the Kingdom of God."