Lent #10 – Discipline 2 of 7 – Repentance.

Restore again to repentance.

(Hebrews 6:4)

I’ve talked of repentance, but haven’t actually practiced the Lenten discipline of repentance. I’m not sure I know how. I’ve chosen my path—the way of Christ. How do I repent—change my mind and go in another direction? According to the book of Hebrews, such repentance is “impossible” (Hb 6:6). So, maybe Lenten Repentance is more like remembering my repentance and baptism that put me on the path of following Jesus. How are things going along the way? I drift off from time to time. I stall along the way saying to myself, “I’m on the right path, that’s good enough. I’ll just sit by the wayside and wait for Glory.”

That’s what concerns the writer to the Hebrews. He, or maybe she (perhaps Priscilla who taught Apollos “the Way of God more accurately” Ac 18:26), does not want me to stall out along the way; but, rather to grow in “the Way of God.” Such growth will require “solid food” (Hb 5:12), especially when you bring up “the priestly order of Melchizedek” (Hb 5:10). Melchizedek? Who’s that? Maybe I’ll just lie down by the wayside and wait for Glory.

Or, maybe I’ll repent of my complacency. Get back on the Jesus path; and, see if I can travel from Melchizedek to Christ my High Priest interceding in my behalf within the Godhead this very moment (Hb 4:14-16, Ro 8:34). Lenten Repentance gets me up and going even when it leads me into “the priestly order of Melchizedek.”