Repent and ye shall be saved … Maybe.

Wherein Geren waxes theological … Some of you may want to skip this.

“Repent and you will be saved,” the Bible tells us. It’s so easy to repent one’s sins. It only takes a few moments.

Assuming for the moment that you believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, say, “Lord, I have sinned and I have dishonored You. I have sinned and it was wrong and I am ashamed. Please forgive me my sins.”

That’s pretty much all there is to the act of repenting one’s sins.

See, it was easy. But are you going to be saved?

I, for one, believe there’s more to it than this. There are a few more steps required is assuring one’s place in Heaven — in addition to trying real hard not to repeat the folly you’re apologizing for in the first place. BTW, God expects that we’re going to screw up down here, so, he’s willing to forgive us a few mistakes. It’s that whole “sending his only Son to die on a cross so that we may be forgiven” thing.

You see, God grants us some gifts. Things that we’re predestined to be reasonably good at. And, He expects us to use at least one of those gifts to do good things for Him during our lifetime. Only by doing what God expects can we be assured of a place in Heaven.

I think that we’re all given three gifts at birth. It is up to us to figure out what those gifts are. I’ve got mine — music, writing and photography. Those are my tools to do my life’s work for God. If I use the correct tools, I will be successful. If not, He’ll let me know. He’ll also let me know if I’m using the tools incorrectly.

For instance, it’s becoming apparent that whatever I’m supposed to be doing with music, I’ve not found it yet. But, I’m beginning to get the idea that music is not to be my primary tool. But, I digress…

When judgment day comes, God’s going to look back a my record. He’s going to notice my sins, and my repentances. And, He’ll look at the gifts he gave me at birth. He’s going to ask me, “What did you do with my gifts?â€? And, I will have to answer.

If I did nothing but squander those gifts, instead of nurturing, expanding, perfecting and using them, God will not be pleased, for I they were given to me as the tools I would need to do his bidding. And, that would mean that I did nothing for Him while living on his planet. That alone would be the greatest sin I could commit, and I would surely be damned.

I had a bit of a revelation this morning, sitting under the model railroad of one of my clients, burning myself with hot solder. The revelation was not that I was really not supposed to be a professional model railroader for God. That’s something I figured out a long time ago.

Rather, the revelation is that I’m here to bring attention to the natural beauty that God has built here on this Earth though photographs, writings and, possibly, songs.

Wow!

The really interesting thing about having that thought, that revelation, is that it made the relative drudgery of what I was doing somewhat more bearable. It made it more concrete that the work that I’m doing now is simply a means to an end, and that it is most definitely a temporary situation.

So, while I now have a better understanding of what I’m expected to do, it is up to me to do the work to figure out how to make it happen. He doesn’t give out all the answers, you know. Some have to be worked for.