Luke 13

Jesus said "unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Verse 3) He went on to say the same thing in verse 5.

I am a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is a mainline denomination. Lutherans follow the liturgical year and seasons; right now we are in Lent. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continues 40 days until Easter Sunday. It is a time of the year when many people give something up as an act of repentance.

For instance, members of my church have given up soda, alcohol and sweets. The hope is that when they crave any of these things, they will remember their sin and be thankful for the grace that they have been given by God.

I have been thinking about repentance a lot lately. I've come to the conclusion that true repentance is a great way to grow in faith. (By true repentance I mean giving up something out of love for God and not the desire to lose 5 pounds.) The deeper we understand our sinful selves and how unworthy we are of God's love, the more we can see how far God has gone to save us.

If I'm being honest with myself, I realize that I'm not that good of a person. My hearts desires are not the same as God's. If I had my way, I would spend most days golfing and sitting on the beach. I get too caught up in things that don't really matter, like professional sports, cars and my motorcycle. And, like everyone else, I want to do what I want to do.

I wasn't put on this earth to satisfy my own longings and desires, I was put here to do God's will. Somedays I'm pretty good at it, and other days I fail miserably. Which is why I need to know that God's love is strong enough to forgive me at my worst.

Repentance will help me be my best, so I need to stop thinking it and actually do it.