What does it mean to repent? It means to turn around.
Instead of looking in the mirror all the time and thinking about ourselves - how we feel, what we want, how we can get ahead - we turn around and look out the window.
- There we see the path that God wants us to follow.
- We see things that we can do for our neighbor.
- We see ways to put our talents to work for something truly worthwhile, to glorify God and to bring lasting happiness to others.
The view out the window is much better than the view in the mirror.
Alfred Nobel, the man who instituted and endowed the Nobel Peace Prize, was lucky enough to discover the view out the window before he died.
- He was a Swedish chemist who made his fortune by inventing powerful explosives and licensing the formula to governments to make weapons.
- One day Nobel's brother died.
- By accident, a newspaper printed an obituary notice for Alfred instead of the deceased brother.
- It identified him as the inventor of dynamite who made a fortune by enabling armies to achieve new levels of mass destruction.
Nobel had the unique opportunity to read his own obituary in his lifetime and get a glimpse of how he would be remembered: as a merchant of death and destruction.
The newspaper's mistake forced him to turn around, to turn away from the mirror and look out the window, to see what impact his life was really having.
That's when he decided to change directions. He took his fortune and used it to establish the awards for accomplishments contributing to life rather than death.
That's a highly visible case of what it means to repent, to turn around.
[Story adapted from Hot Illustrations, Copyright 2001 Youth Specialties]