For so many people, in Jesus’ day and now in ours, life is the road to death. But Jesus came with the good news that we are on the way to life and not to death.

But there is a need to repent. The word metanoia literally means a change of mind. There are many people who are desperately sorry because of the mess that sin has gotten them into, but that person also knows that, if the person could be reasonably sure that he or she could escape the consequences, they would do the same thing again. It is not the sin that the person hates; it is the consequence of the sin.

There is a Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy is shedding bitter tears. She wails: “My mother promised me a birthday party and now she says I can’t have one. It’s not fair.” Her brother Linus calls Lucy aside and offers some advice: “Why not go up to mom and say to her, ‘I’m sorry dear mother. I admit I’ve been bad. You were right to cancel my party. But from now I shall try to be good.” Lucy thinks about it. She prepares a little speech. Then she thinks about it some more. Finally, in the last strip of the panel, she cries out, “I’d rather die!”

To believe in the Good News simply mean to take Jesus at his word, to believe that God is the kind of God that Jesus told us about, to believe that God so loves the world that he will make any sacrifice to bring us back to himself, to believe that what sounds too good to be true is really true.

• Thought for the week: Change what you can; accept what you can’t; live peacefully with all that’s left.
• Smile for the week: Jimmy and Joey were two brothers, six and four years old, who decided to get into the cookie jar on the top shelf when their mother was upstairs. As they piled chairs and boxes to reach the jar, little Joey remarked: “You know Mom told us that God sees everything we do.” “I know, I know,” retorted Jimmy, “but we’re lucky – God can keep a secret.”

God bless! Have a wonderful week!