There are two kinds of change in my mind that make sense.
Temporary and Permanent.
Temporary change is the result of external forces. For example, if you are apprehended by the police and they place you in an arm bar you are temporarily forced to change. Once the officer releases that pressure you will return to what it is you were doing or possibly even attack the officer depending on how belligerent you are. The reason for this outside of injustice or self defense is that external forces can only create temporary change becasue they cannot by themselves do for you what only you can do for yourself which is change your heart and mind about how you think and feel about the situation in which you find yourself. This changing of your heart and mind has been called many things over history such as enlightenment, self actualization, but really it is what an old book i read once refers to as repentence.
We can look to others for the answers for why we dont change. We can blame others, our environment, authority figures, and make a myriad of other excuses, but, in the end the only one who can initiate change for you is you. People can become catalysts and provide opportunities for change to occur but only you can walk through the door. Only you can repent for you.
Culturally we have made this word repentence something negative, something to be feared, and humiliated by. After all, you must be a sinner if you have to repent and as we all know Christians dont sin so we have nothing to worry about. For the outsider looking in it is obvious why we could never join becasue we could never reach the standards that Christians seem to. Our conception of Repentence is so negative and skewed that we must somehow elevate ourselves above the word just so that we dont have to live under the shadow of guilt.
But what if this concept I call change and old books called repentence was the doorway to the kind of life we are all seeking? What if a life full of repentence was sononomous with a life of great significance? What if repentence were not viewed as negative but rather as an essential to inward growth as well as visible outward growth.
"Some often repent, yet never reform; they resemble a man traveling in a dangerous path, who frequently starts and stops, but never looks back."
- Bonnell Thornton
More to come....just thinking
