THE ORDER OF CHANGE
(Friday) For the past few weeks I've been sampling Tim Tinsley's daily email devotional called "In His Grip" (good stuff from Tinsley). He's been talking about Jonah and in today's email he comments:

The goal of repentance is to be in right relationship with God and to be back about His glorious business. Repenting is a change of mind, heart, and actions. The Lord influences us through all three of these. He influences us first of all by impacting our thinking. As our thinking changes, then our hearts have an opportunity to respond. Our heart, where our emotions are seated, may or may not pick up and respond to the information that has penetrated our brains. But our actions are sure to follow, one way or the other. If we remain in our old pattern of thinking, then we will not change our hearts or behavior. If we take on a new pattern of thinking, then we have an opportunity to have our hearts impacted as well. This might or might not happen, but we know for sure that it will not happen unless our brains are first hit with some new input. Our hearts then automatically begin assimilating the new info and either heartily (pardon the pun) accept it or in apathy reject it. But if we do receive new information through our brain and our heart accepts it, then we may see a change in action or behavior.

I think that he is basically right. But I wonder if repentance isn't more complex. Sometimes our emotions change before our minds and sometimes our actions can precede our emotions or our minds.

I think of the couple living together apart from the covenant of marriage. They don't really see the need for the "formal commitment". But to make their parents (or the pastor or their friends or ...) happy they get married (action). But it's only after they've acted that they realize that it was more right than they had understood. At that point their hearts and minds are affected. 

My point is that the process of repentance can't be too neatly packaged. But certainly in its fullness it eventually involves the head, the heart, and the hands.