What Stephen King Taught Me About Repentance

I know.  Just hang in there with me.

Russ Moore relays Stephen King's account of how he quit drinking and turns it into one of those posts that make you smile at the end.

Drunkenness isn’t my particular point of weakness, but I sure have lots of others. And this anecdote reminded me of how many times God has used something minor to arrest my attention. It usually isn’t a cross in the sky or a vision on the road. But I’ll hear someone speak and think, “Oh man, that sounds like me, and I don’t want to be like that.” Or a conversation will prompt me to think about some stupid parenting maneuver I’ve been attempting. Or my son will pretend to be “Daddy,” and I’ll think, “Hey, that’s not how I want to be remembered by my boys.” Or I’ll stop in the middle of my self-pity and whining to see a sunset that will remind me how good God is to let me view it. And so on.

I’d imagine you can think of similar things in your own life, uncanny little moments that turn you around, back toward the goal of Christ. That’s discipline, though not what we typically think of when we think of discipline. These moments are moments of gentle kindness. And God’s kindness is meant “to lead you to repentance” (Rom. 2:4).

What a nice turn on that passage in Romans.  The passage itself needs this emphasis on goodness and kindness; it happens to be one of those passages that literally scares the hell out of me.  Sometimes I need to hear the entire thing, but right now I'm grateful for those "moments of gentle kindness".