U-Turns

The other night while closing at work, a co-worker and I listened to one of my CDs; it was a mix of 80s music. We sang along to song after song, as we counted the money in the safe and prepared the deposit for the next day. A song by Prince began. My co-worker told me that the particular song that was playing was one that he would no longer perform. I inquired why. She said it was because of the sexual overtones in the lyrics. I had no idea there were sexual overtones in the lyrics. I couldn’t understand half of what he was saying anyway. So I asked why he changed his mind.

“He found religion,” she replied.

While I do not agree with his new-found religious beliefs, I do respect his repentance. He could have said, “Well, I won’t write any more songs with sexual overtones” and nothing would have stopped him from still performing those older songs. As I noticed in my Ten-Minute Commitment, Prince’s repentance can be contrasted to that of Saul.

In I Samuel 24, David and his men are hiding in a cave. Saul enters the cave, and David’s men want to ambush and slay Saul. David denies their request. He does, however, confront Saul and show his honest intentions. Saul breaks down and weeps (verse 16). Saul thanks David for sparing his life, and asks that God bless him. One would think that would be the end of Saul’s relentless pursuit of David.

Two chapters later, Saul is at it again, chasing David. The king’s army is encamped for the night, and David takes Abishai down to Saul’s camp. Abishai wants to kill Saul, and, once again, David doesn’t let harm come to Saul. Again, David confronts Saul to show his honest intentions, and, once again, Saul is sorry. He says, “For I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes this day” (I Samuel 26:21).

After the incident in the cave, Saul did not truly repent. Saul wept, but he didn’t repent. He felt bad, but he didn’t repent. He acknowledged he was doing wrong, but he didn’t repent. Repentance doesn’t simply mean we are sorry. It means we make a u-turn. We turn away from the sin and go in the opposite direction. We have no indication that Saul chased David after that second encounter.

Let us all be wary of the reality of not really repenting our own sins. Hebrews 10:26 says, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (NKJV). Let us, instead, turn away and turn to the cleansing blood of Christ, like I John 1:7 states, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin” (NKJV).

By the way, now that I have an iPod, I downloaded my 80s music to it. That Prince song is now conspicuously missing.