From the Desk of the Senior Pastor
March 2026
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” – Matthew 4:17.
In thinking about repentance, it occurred to me that there are some parallels with the activity of decluttering. In my family, it is often a bit of a struggle to throw things out. There are things
that we keep around because they were useful once but not anymore and we think, “What if I need it again sometime?” There are things that are worn out but have sentimental value. We become attached to things for all sorts of reasons that may have served us in some way in the past. The same is true for things for which we need to repent. We don’t do things because we think that they are wrong or unhealthy or problematic. We do things because, for some reason, doing those things seemed to be the right things, the helpful things, the things that served a purpose in the past. And, it is difficult to admit that maybe Jesus disagrees with us, that maybe we were wrong, that maybe this or that was not helpful, that maybe it was even harmful to ourselves or others. It is difficult to make a change, to declutter our lives.
But, what if we started to think of repentance as a joyful activity? What if we had a “KonMari Method” of repentance where we thought of what it is that sparks joy in God’s eyes. According to Jesus, God loves us. God wants us to live abundantly together as God’s people. God wants us to love God and to love our neighbors, to be peacemakers, to bring light into the darkness. And, being created in the image of God, it should follow that what brings God joy would bring us joy as well. So, acts of repentance, turning from our sins and towards God’s ways, should bring us more joy, not less.
What if our uncharitable thoughts towards others, our acts of selfishness, our lack of compassion, our tendency to hold grudges, and things like that, which probably served us in some way in the past, were discarded and replaced with the teachings of Jesus where we showed grace, selfless love, compassion, and forgiveness? Would that not spark a renewed sense of joy in our own lives?
Repentance can be hard. But repentance is meant to be a joy. It is a gift of God that has the power to transform our lives and the lives around us for the better. I pray that your Lenten journey is a joy that leads to the transformed life
empowered by the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
Peace.