How’s that new year-new you thing working out? Are you enjoying a dry January, meatless Mondays, or reading more, playing

 phone games less, talking to friends more frequently than “liking” their FB posts? Why do we feel such a need to constantly remake ourselves into something better?

Perhaps it is the number of advertisements we are subjected to that pressure us to create lives “they” tell us others will envy. (P.S.: Envy is one of the forbidden zones of the Ten Commandments.)

Do we have areas of improvement we need to attend to live our best life? Of course. Does it require a constant barrage of self-deprecation, self-denial, and self-flagellation? No! Martin Luther’s gift to us, the thing that kicked off the Reformation of the church, was his recognition that beating ourselves up in order to be acceptable was the opposite of grace.

The prayer of confession during worship is part of our religious tradition.

Repentance is turning away from the world’s faults-for-profit schemes

and turning toward God’s assets-of-prophets design.