04 - Repentance Chair
I’ve listened to a lot of The Deep End podcast lately with Taylor Welch and he mentions that in his quiet time with the Lord he went through a season of constant repentance. So much so that he dubbed a chair in his house as the ‘repentance chair’.
The way he spoke of repentance had me rethinking the way I’d grown to dislike the word and connotation of it. He speaks of it with joy and open vulnerability, like there’s nothing to feel ashamed of about repentance.
That’s not at all the way I’d come to view repentance through the years. Repentance was always a word connected to shame. It was only in the past few years that I discovered that the word repentance in the Bible comes from the Greek word “metanoia”, which means to change one’s mind and the Hebrew word “teshuva” which means return or to turn back.
Through the years, I had always seen repentance demonstrated by public shaming. I remember a man that had to stand in front of our church when I was younger and publicly share that he had committed adultery as he had a small leadership role in one of the small groups in our church. There were plenty of other times through the years that I saw the two words, repentance and shame, irrevocably intertwined, not simply the changing of one’s mind or turning back.
What a concept - to repent without shame. To simply turn back and realign with God.
If repentance were framed this way—free of shame and full of grace—I believe it would become a natural rhythm of life, not something to flee from in fear of exposure.
If we would love like Jesus loves, I think we’d create such an approachable atmosphere around us that shame stood no chance and anyone needing to make right a grievance would be more apt to do it, knowing we hold no shame for them, only love.
When I think about what atmospheres without shame looks like, I’m reminded of my beautiful friend Marie. She once shared in an interview on my podcast, “I make vulnerability familiar” when I asked her about how she came to be so open about what she’s walked through.
I so loved this statement from her. It’s why I could be so vulnerable with her during one of my hardest seasons. I felt no shame sharing what I’d walked through, because she set the stage for honest connection.
She had created an atmosphere of freedom and love that organically led the way for me to share my own repentance chair moment of turning back to God after walking in the wrong direction. It is born out of her deep intimacy with the Lord and the way she lives her life. What a beautiful by-product of living for the Lord. That atmospheres are shifted by the way we show up in life.
God is healing so many broken ways I’ve processed things through the years. Repentance being one of them.
I believe God wants repentance to feel more like opening up in safety and love, rather than a public shaming meant to harm you. That’s the invitation today - to take the time to process how we’ve viewed repentance and ask the Lord to reveal His truth.
See you tomorrow, friend.