Gotta Change

2Corinthians 7:9-10

Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.

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This can't go on,
Lord knows you gotta change.

Evil Ways by Santana

Repent, literally means turn away or turn around depending on your translator.

We know a way of living our lives, a way that we are comfortable with even if it's destructive. Self destructive, destructive to others, we can become comfortable with things that make us very uncomfortable. Really, it's staying with the devil we know over the devil we don't. But then, there are times in our lives, what some call a "moment of clarity" when the way we live our lives grieves us. There comes a moment when we come to know that there is more to life than the way we live it. But where does that grief come from?

What Paul calls "a godly grief" is a product of the Holy Spirit knocking on the doors of our lives. Scripture tells of a still small voice, but there are times when this voice comes with the roar of a tornado. It comes through loved ones. It comes through circumstances. It comes in dreams in an otherwise peaceful sleep. It can even come in dreams that make the night even more peaceful.

But this grief is of no use unless this grief leads us to that repentance. It's when we stick with the devil we know that we fail to listen to the leadings of the spirit, when we neglect the godly grief. At this point, we have to be reminded that turning to salvation brings no regret. This is what it means to say that God is concerned with us before we are concerned with God. Turning to salvation is our call, our holy vocation.

There is one big difference between Carlos' lyric and God's love though. The song has the words "You gotta change your evil ways, baby, before I stop loving you." This is true of the man whose house is dark and pots are cold, but this isn't true of God's love.

God will never stop loving you. God will never stop loving us. We are called to love God, we are called to change our evil ways not to earn God's love but to respond to God's love. God came, lived, was killed, and rose again from the dead to take sin from the face of the earth, from the face of we who walk the earth.

It is our call to feel the godly grief of our lives to turn away from what's not godly to what is. This gives God joy, but failing this will not make God love us less. It just means there is more godly grief from the heavenly Father on the horizon.

The Touch of God

Luke 18:15-17

People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

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Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me, baby
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won't you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?

I'm gonna love you
Till the heavens stop the rain
I'm gonna love you
Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I
I'm gonna love you
Till the heavens stop the rain
I'm gonna love you
Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I

"Touch Me" by The Doors

I can't tell you when it started, it was probably longer ago than anyone would care to imagine, but touching is getting a bad rap. I read recently that some consider "hugging" to be a "gateway contact" to sex. Some even advocate what is known as the "Christian Side Hug," a shoulder-to-shoulder hug where the only embrace is hand to upper arm. A brief squeeze is permitted with the Christian Side Hug, but one day someone is going to hug too hard or too long and the whole thing will need to be reevaluated.

In Christ is the manifested grip of God on our lives. God's hold on us is embodied in Jesus' touch. There is something pure in God's touch, something that is often missing in our time. There is an innocence that is shared between the arms of God and these children that is sorely lacking in our time.

Jesus says that “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” So we are all supposed to receive the kingdom with the innocence of the infants handed to the Lord by their mothers. We are called to come in a purity and innocence that our lives betray. But we are still supposed to come. We may never come in such purity, but it is still how we are called to come.

Jim Morrison sings of how he's going to love you. He sings that he is going to love till the heavens stop the rain and till the stars fall from the sky. He loves and holds, it is another way to envision a holy touch.

Morrison exuded sexuality, this is true. But when we examine God's love in touch, we can see what that means to us in Jim's words. We must remember though, Jim's words are meant for grown-ups who want to act like grown-ups. Jesus' words are meant for people who want to be children of God. For that, we need to be like children first.