Time For Change

“The time is fullled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15

Repent used to be a word that would make me inch. It always brought to mind condemnation, anger and eternal damnation. It was this “turn or burn” association that always made me hesitant to even consider using the word in a conversation of faith. But, repent is actually not that at all. The Greek word is metanoeó. Meta means “with”, “after”,”beyond”. Noeo is “perception”,”understanding”,”mind”. Literally it carries the idea of after perceiving or understanding to a moving beyond your current mindset – changing the way you think.

So, what Jesus is literally saying is “change the way you think and believe the good news“.

It is ironic to me that instead of changing the way we think, we have changed the meaning of the words. Instead of reasoning together what the nearness of God means to the transformation of our lives, we widen the gap between God and humanity by changing a word of enlightenment into a rhetoric of condemnation. Instead of drawing others into a conversation with an invitation to change the way you think about God, to believe the good news of “for God so the loved the world, we draw lines in the sand, creating our boundaries of conformity.

Allow me to share my understanding of Jesus’ words:
Right now is the time to recognize that God is closer than you realize. It is time to change the way you think. It is a new day! The old thinking of hatred, lack of forgiveness, condemnation and all those things that we have allowed to distract us from the Love God is, are no longer valid. This is good stuff – run with it and spread the word!