Clay in the Hands

Have you ever taken a wrong turn? Now days, GPS and the maps on our phones can help prevent such a thing – when they are accurate. But growing up when I did, those tools were not available. The good thing is, I grew up in west Texas and I learned that towns are typically laid out in a grid pattern with streets going north and south and then cross streets going east and west. If you missed a turn – or turned the wrong way, you simply “made the block” as we would say and come back to the site of the mistake and choose differently.

That served me well in the barren geography of west Texas. But the first time I tried to navigate a town with a river running through it, all common sense went out the window. There was no “making the block”. The next turn might take you in a totally different direction. And without a clear picture of what direction to go, it was easy to get farther and farther from where one needed to be. It finally came to a decision of either continuing to meander around until the destination was found or simply turn around and backtrack.

Our lives are like that. It is so easy to take a wrong turn and continue to get farther and farther away from where we need to be. When we think about turning back, the distance we have come seems insurmountable – too great to make it worth even trying to get back to where we took the wrong turn.

Yesterday, one of my readings was in Acts 11. The chapter recounts Peter’s being called before the leaders in Jerusalem to give an answer for why he went outside the Jewish faith to share the Gospel. I encourage you to read the story and what led Peter to step outside all that he had been raised to believe to take the good news to a Gentile. After giving his reasoning, we are told in verse 18, “When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even the Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

As I have reflected on this idea of repentance being offered to even someone like me, I have thought a lot about what repentance is and what it means. The act of repentance is best understood as turning around – literally a 180 degree turn. If you are going one direction, repentance means turning back and going the complete opposite direction. This is our choice. When we are told that God has granted repentance that leads to life – that means he accepts our turning back. But we have to do the turning!

Here is the beauty and blessing of the repentance that God grants – when we turn back to Him, He is right there. Regardless of how far off track we may have gotten. No matter how far down the road we may have wandered or all the side streets we may have explored, when we decide to turn back, there is no ground to make up to get back to where we need to be.

That is grace!

The psalmist says in Psalm 139 that no matter where we go, God is there. If we go up to the heights or down to the depths, God is already there. When we decide to turn back to him, we don’t have to first correct all the mis-guided steps or wrong turns to get back to Him – He is already there.

HE IS ALWAYS RIGHT THERE!

So today, if you feel you have taken a wrong turn in life and you need to get back on track, know that God is waiting for you to simply turn around toward Him.

Turn around and find peace today – turn around and find hope!