Missed Opportunities: Confession and Repentance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some of life\u2019s missed opportunities can be traced to the meaning of words.\u00a0 Not the dictionary definitions --- the definitions we give to the words out of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missed Opportunities: Confession and Repentance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some of life\u2019s missed opportunities can be traced to the meaning of words.\u00a0 Not the dictionary definitions --- the definitions we give to the words out of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"What God Wants for Your Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-01T20:52:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/\",\"name\":\"Missed Opportunities: Confession and Repentance\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-01T20:52:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-04-01T20:52:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\"},\"description\":\"Some of life\u2019s missed opportunities can be traced to the meaning of words.\u00a0 Not the dictionary definitions --- the definitions we give to the words out of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Missed Opportunities: Confession and Repentance\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\",\"name\":\"What God Wants for Your Life\",\"description\":\"Thoughts on the perennial demands and changing shape of Christian spirituality.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\",\"name\":\"Frederick Schmidt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frederick Schmidt\"},\"description\":\"The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. 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{"id":440,"date":"2011-04-01T20:52:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T20:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/experts.patheos.com\/expert\/frederickwschmidt\/?p=440"},"modified":"2011-04-01T20:52:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T20:52:49","slug":"missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2011\/04\/missed-opportunities-confession-and-repentance\/","title":{"rendered":"Missed Opportunities: Confession and Repentance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Some of life\u2019s missed opportunities can be traced to the meaning of words.\u00a0 Not the dictionary definitions \u2014 the definitions we give to the words out of our experiences.<\/p>\n

Confession and repentance are two such words.\u00a0 For many they are the dirtiest words in the Christian vocabulary.\u00a0 They refer to practices that are designed to make people feel badly about themselves, drive them back to church, fill them with guilt, and force them to need God.<\/p>\n

Those are lies out of hell.<\/p>\n

The goals of confession and repentance are not about any of those things.\u00a0 They are about ground clearing.\u00a0 They are about naming and removing the obstacles that keep God from getting to us and giving to us.<\/p>\n

They are not about making it possible for God to love us.\u00a0 They are about making it possible for us to see that God already does love us.<\/p>\n

Why miss an opportunity like that?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of life\u2019s missed opportunities can be traced to the meaning of words.\u00a0 Not the dictionary definitions \u2014 the definitions we give to the words out of our experiences. Confession and repentance are two such words.\u00a0 For many they are the dirtiest words in the Christian vocabulary.\u00a0 They refer to practices that are designed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\nMissed Opportunities: Confession and Repentance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some of life\u2019s missed opportunities can be traced to the meaning of words.\u00a0 Not the dictionary definitions --- the definitions we give to the words out of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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