Repentance: Incomparable Process of Life Change and Spiritual Transformation

This week Mark introduces the Begin A New Life program - a process using the steps of repentance as a means of self examination. He offers personal testimony as to the amazing, deep, and life changing process that is repentance. -Editor

On January 25th, a one-day seminar/workshop was held at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania (USA). Twenty-four people—college age and up—were there. The subject was the New Church’s “steps of repentance” as a disciplined spiritual practice¹. The title of the seminar was Begin a New Life: Four Universal Steps of Life Change and Spiritual Transformation.

Begin a New Life is a universal, faith based process of life change and spiritual transformation. It involves a formatting of the steps of repentance into a set of worksheets which allows people to go through the process in journalizing fashion. It also borrows on Swedenborg’s full explanations of the Ten Commandments at two different points in the process—recognition and living a new life.

The purpose of this article is to give a testimony to the value of this process in my own life.

Looking back, and beginning at age fifteen, I was looking for a powerful, effective, and deeply meaningful process for making lasting changes and improvements in my life. As I grew through my late teens into my adult years, I practiced a number of spiritual approaches, both in and outside of the New Church. All of them helped me on my spiritual journey. But for different reasons, I couldn’t find one that had full staying power with me—none of them seemed to get me fully “there” in my spiritual walk.

In 2004 (at age 44) I turned to the steps of repentance. Since then, I’ve practiced this approach exclusively as a means of personal improvement and spiritual growth. What I’ve found is that it provides me with everything I was searching for—and more. I haven’t needed another, baseline, spiritual practice since 2004, and I doubt I ever will.

When I first began formatting and using this process, I noticed positive effects in my life that I hadn’t experienced before. I kept a list of those effects, and the number grew until it was 58 items long. Then I stopped counting. Time passed, and I decided to cull the list down to my favorites. That list was still 20 items long. So I squeezed harder, till I brought the list down to just three. Here are my three favorite effects:

• First, this process of life change and spiritual transformation gets me to the heart of any personal issue faster, more directly, more deeply, and more completely than anything I’ve experienced. At times it does so in an almost breathtaking way—literally.
• Second, at the hands of this process, I have experienced a sense of closeness and togetherness with the Lord that I hadn’t experienced before.
• And finally (my very favorite) is a sense of hope. Over the last nine years, I have gone through this process hundreds of times, and each time I’ve done so, I’ve come away with a feeling of hope—along the lines of “I can do this.” “With God’s help, I will conquer this thing in my life.” Wise people say, “Don’t say always or never”, but the truth is that every time I’ve gone through this process, it has fed me with life-giving hope—every single time. This has been an unexpected blessing in my life, and my favorite feature of the process.

Here are a few additional testimonies to the power and effectiveness of this process in people’s lives. Each testimony is related to the BNL seminar/workshop mentioned above. All of them are unsolicited.

“Thank you for the Begin a New Life seminar. It was the most amazing spiritual experience I’ve ever had.” (C. B.)

“A big thanks for offering this path. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.” (B. P.)

“I’ve gotten more out of this process in the first two months of using it than I’ve gotten out of thousands of hours of counseling.” (G. S.)

“Thank you for the Begin a New Life workshop. I feel like I came away with new, high-quality tools for working on my own personal project called life, plus an instruction book with all the necessary game-winning plays.” (P. C.)

“I’m writing to tell you how the BNL workshop has already, literally changed my life.” (D. H.)

“I want you to know how much I appreciate the resources on the BNL website—from the worksheets to the immensely useful sourcebook. I recently used these resources counseling a man who was looking for a way to overcome his destructive temper. We worked through the resources, and he was deeply touched by the Lord to make a change. Since completing the program he has truly begun a new life. He has grown in his relationship with his wife, is more interested in his spiritual growth, and has become a committed member of the church that I pastor. Thank so much for the work that’s been put into this easy-to-use program. It allows the Lord to work miracles in people’s lives. May the Lord bless this work as it goes forward!” (M. A.)

“Doing this work is putting first things first in my life. The process allows me to look deeply inside myself for changes that need to be made. It increases my awareness of what in my life is not working. It helps me become conscious of things I have thought or done automatically my whole life. It gives me a sense of partnership with God—I feel like He’s holding my hand throughout this process, like we’re going through it together. It offers me freedom from ways of thinking and acting that have held me captive and enslaved me. It gives me hope and inspires me.” (E. I.)

Based on testimonies like these, here is a question that I’ve asked myself: Is it possible that the steps of repentance are a divinely perfect process of life change and spiritual transformation? Swedenborg maintains that the process was given to him by “a voice from heaven,” which, if we compare passages in the Scriptures, and also in Swedenborg’s writings, seems to refer to the Lord’s own voice. And if it was the Lord’s own voice that delivered the process to the world, then it comes as no surprise that people would discover it to be a divinely perfect, effective, and deeply meaningful process.

From a lifetime of experience with spiritual programs (starting at age fifteen), and from nine years of exclusive, disciplined practice using this particular approach, I would suggest that these things are true of the process of repentance. I have found it to be an incomparable process for making and sustaining any life change that I want or need to make—one or two changes at a time.² But don’t take my word for it, or even the words of others quoted above. Try it yourself, and see what you discover. It’s there—just waiting for you!^{3 4}

All good wishes to you in your spiritual walk. May you know the blessings of life change and spiritual transformation that are true and deep.

Footnotes

¹The steps of repentance are outlined in True Christianity by Emanuel Swedenborg, paragraph nos. 528 (heading) and 567.5.

²Incomparable: without an equal in quality or extent; matchless

³The Begin a New Life program is available online at www.BeginaNewLife.info. In addition, the full day seminar/workshop can be held in your area at relatively low cost. For more information, go to the BNL website and click Seminar/Workshop Options.

⁴Upcoming seminar/workshops in 2014 include Seattle, Washington (March 15); Johannesburg, South Africa (July 19); Durban, South Africa (July 26). Other locations where it has been given include Albuquerque, New Mexico; Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; Dawson Creek, British Columbia; Kempton, Pennsylvania; Rochester, Michigan; San Diego, California; Tucson, Arizona; and West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mark Pendleton

Mark is the Associate Pastor of the Glenview New Church in Glenview, Illinois (USA). He is also the developer of the Begin a New Life program. He lives with his wife, Ellen, in Glenview.