KIMZ PONDOSITIES

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 REPENT: A Return to Freedom — Kimz Pondosities™

Last month, we explored Rejoice — a joy not manufactured or forced,

but the quiet kind that remains steady beneath the chaos.

 This month brings an unexpected twist: repent isn’t the enemy of joy —

it is how we return to joy again and again.

 Is there underlying sorrow when we truly examine our failings?

Yes — and yet having joy in the returning

is what keeps us aligned with truth, freedom, and belonging.

 Repent isn’t the cold anti-joy of punishment — because to repent is not to be punished —

it is the warm invitation into deeper connection with God, others, and our own soul.

Rejoicing and repenting are not opposites — they are companions in restoration.

The word repent has been burdened with meanings it was never meant to carry.

For many, it evokes shame, fear, or the sense that something is wrong with us.

Yet repentance was never intended to be a spiritual penalty.

At its core, repentance is an act of clarity — a return to what is aligned, grounded, and whole.

This reflection is not a rejection of repentance, but a return to its original meaning —

one rooted in responsibility, freedom, and grace.

Repentance is humbly returning —

acknowledging what went wrong before the One who created us,

the Author of life,

the Designer of the soul,

the Source of truth, love, and every breath —

and turning back toward the Creator,

toward others, and toward what is true, what is right, and what is good.

When we repent, we expose ourselves authentically.

We see ourselves for who we truly are, and we move forward in clarity.

Remorse can sound convincing — but it often arises when we are caught.

It is a reaction to consequence.

Repentance is different.

It is an internal pivot — truth-telling that begins within, before anyone else knows.

Repentance steps forward.

It restores dignity.

It leads to freedom.

Grace Before Truth — The Surgical Room of the Soul

In graduate school, a professor I deeply respected shared an analogy I will never forget:

Grace is the anesthesia given so that the necessary surgery can be performed

and truth can finally be revealed.

Without anesthesia, the body would resist — pushing away the very instrument designed to heal.

Pain would overwhelm progress.

Deeper work would be impossible.

Grace comes first because safety is what allows truth to be seen rather than feared.

Only then what harms us can be identified, removed, and the deeper healing begin.

The only exception is in an emergency — when immediate truth is needed to prevent imminent danger.

I once lived the opposite story.

For the first 50 years of my life,

I saw truth first and grace second.

There is no dyslexia in my history, yet every time I read Scripture,

I somehow flipped the divine order.

A mentor once told me why:

“If you see truth before grace,

you were likely raised in a home

where correction came before comfort

and punishment before understanding.”

So for decades, I read the Bible through fear-based thinking —

as if God were primarily a judge watching for my mistakes, and Jesus was the only One I could run to for safety.

But when the order flipped — grace first, then truth — everything changed.

Truth was never meant to wound us.

Truth was meant to free us — once grace steadies us enough to receive it.

Part 2 continues January 15 —

where a childhood moment reveals what grace can do.

 💜💜💜