This Side of the Pulpit » Theology, Writing&Books » Life Needs Revision

Life Needs Revision

June 1st, 2009 | Add a Comment

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Nobody like to make revisions. We think that the words should come out right the first time. We imagine writers sitting down, finished novels flowing from their pens. We like the illusion of getting everything right the first time. Life doesn’t afford revisions after all. We get one chance to speak, one chance to help, one chance to pick up the ball or drop. We live moment-by-moment and never have a chance to go back and do things over.

Life is like that, but writing is all about revision. The true first draft is in your head, of course. The second gets typed into the computer. The third is the [del] key. The fourth is the actual hard-core revision or re-write. The fifth is the minor revisions. The sixth is the copyeditor’s work. Sometimes there are even more.

Check out this link. It contains analysis and links to the first four drafts of George Lucas’ Star Wars. Now, you may argue that the final version is far from a literary or film masterpiece. Ok, no arguing. It’s more pulp than art. Timeless and influential, but not art. But it is fascinating to see how the story evolved from draft to draft. This is serious revision. And it worked. Writing demands it. All writing demands it. I should do the same to this post….

But what of life, again? There is no do-over, no “draft” mode for living. You live. You speak, and as JD from Scrubs says, “Every 4.6 seconds a man will say something that will get him in trouble with a woman.” There is no rewind button. No do-over or sandbox mode. We’re stuck in the moment.

We cannot do-over, but we can change. That’s repentance. Repentance is not guilt. It is not feeling, being, or acting sorry for what you have done. Repentence means change, turning direction. Changing our behavior and our thougths is the only way to make a difference, to make a revision of life. It cannot remove the consequences of what we’ve already done. Reptentance is not able to change the past. But repentance–the turning around, the change of direction–means that things will be different from here on in our lives.