We treat turning around, changing course, as a sign of weakness. But it is often quite literally the only real option.

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Repent

We have a stereotype that men don’t like asking for directions. But it’s actually a bit complicated. It’s the stopping when we want to keep going. The admitting we’ve messed up. And the recognition that we need help.

The same things can be said about addiction. Leadership. Politics. Academia. All of these, and so many other areas of our lives, which, at the heart of it all, deal with changing direction with grace.

The thing about turning around is that we code it as loss. Perhaps a loss of status or sense of certainty. But we have a hard time also coding the time we spend going in the wrong direction as its own kind of loss. We don’t put it on a balance sheet as loss.

To repent is to literally turn toward something else. We are actually being offered the freedom we most desire. To leave the bad junk behind and live now.