Repent!
How do you feel upon reading that word? It may carry negative connotations from experiences with overzealous hypocrites, who preach love hatefully.
It’s been used by evil men to rebuke
It’s been used to control and manipulate
To instill fear guilt and shame
To demand loyalty and assimilation
I’ve always had a hard time following a rule if I didn’t understand it or feel it had a good purpose. I’ve always asked, “but why?” I never liked wearing white dress shirts and suits to church, or the scout pants / shorts in my stint in the boy scouts, or even wearing a bike helmet or seat belt (before the days of the relentless beeping. I guess potentially saving my life wasn’t a good enough reason 
) I didn’t like being told what to do, or how to do it. I guess Ive always had a little bit of a rebellious nature. Because of this, I’ve never liked the word “repent”.
Upon further reflection of the word, however, I’ve come to appreciate it
Repentance means change
Change is good
Check your priorities: What is driving you? What are your main motivators? Is it the love of money? Lust? Envy? Comfort? Complacency? Ego? Or do you want to do more good? To help relieve suffering? To be a light, or a force of good in the world? Only you truly know your true intentions when you self analyze.
The kingdom of God is within you.
It’s not about conformity to a religion;
It’s about SELF MASTERY!
To repent means to self reflect and take a good honest look at your motivators, and realign them if they are off track. This life is all about self control, and living a full, industrious, meaningful, and charitable life! THIS is Gods Will for you! When dreams and desires you have are good, they come from God.
To repent is to remember just who is supplying all the good to you in your life, humbling yourself to acknowledge this is true, and giving thanks where thanks is due. Stop building ego, or mansions on earth, but build them with God; because either way you are with God, just one way you are taking all the credit like a bad business partner, or you are acknowledging that your part is really kinda small, and all the ideas, inspiration, grace, and problem solving has come from God.
It helps me to remove the religious connotations because sometimes they make me feel forced or controlled (And homie don’t play that)
This is all
Now, REPENT! All of you “Heathens” 
and strive to always be better today than you were yesterday, and then even better still tomorrow.
-ill get off the soap box now
