Repent ~ μετάνοια ~ change direction

One morning last week, I clicked on an article from the New York Times Magazine that, normally, I would have passed by without pausing to read deeper. A young man, Josh Owens, wrote about his regrettable experience of working for Alex Jones and Infowars for about five years, committing himself to the job because at 23 he was “vulnerable, angry, and searching for direction.”

What caught my attention was the title: “I worked for Alex Jones. I regret it.” All week, I had been traveling in my sermon preparation with John the Baptist along the River Jordan, hollering for the people of Jerusalem and Judea to “Repent!” (Matthew 3:1-12). All of the sudden the River Jordan opened up in my news feed and submerged a young man confessing his life altering experience, repenting from a career of supporting a conspiracy theorist and guerrilla news operation. I wondered who was the Baptist that confronted him with the reign of God and invited him into the waters of repentance? So I read the article…

Josh was attracted to the job because the angry, self-righteous world view that Jones preached felt powerful. “Jones had a way of imbuing the world with mystery, adding a layer of cinematic verisimilitude that caught my attention… I believed that the world was strategically run by a shadowy, organized cabal, and that Jones was a hero for exposing it.” Only after four years of editing and creating the video footage for Infowars, Josh got to see how the sausage was made and he lost his taste for it. “Once my beliefs began to shift, I saw the virulent nature of his (Jones’) world, the emptiness and loathing in many of those impassioned claims.”

Josh admits that there were many times when he considered leaving, but he was either afraid his reputation was forever tarnished and no one else would hire him or he would receive a large bonus check from Jones and the compensation made the work a little more palatable. Toward the end of his 5 years, Josh traveled to cover a story on Muslim immigrants living in a community, Islamberg, observing Muslim law, culture, and religious practice. Of course, the piece they were tasked to create was full of fear and vilification and a story that fed into post 9-11 American xenophobia. After getting very little salacious footage, the crew boarded a plane back to Texas – and it is in an aisle seat on a jet that Josh meets his Baptist calling him to repent.

What allowed Josh to finally reject the hard line, righteous, intolerant, mindset that he worked for and move towards a new world view? Was there a wild man wearing, skins and eating bugs? Did he sit next to a prophet, a zealot, a wilderness preacher?

No. Josh was confronted by a Muslim child.

A mother in a hijab asks Josh if he will give up his window seat for her daughter to enjoy the view on her first plane ride. Josh graciously moves to the aisle seat and, looking at the child as she excitedly looks out the window, the reign of God comes near. Josh sees clearly the innocent victim of all of his work for Infowars. “As I sat on the aisle, the plane now lifting up into the pale blue sky, I glanced over at the little girl staring out the window in wonder, her face glowing from the light reflecting off the clouds. She was amazed, joyful, innocent, carefree and completely unaware of the world beneath her.”

After the little Muslim girl dunks Josh into repentance, no amount of fear, money, or power can stop Josh from changing the direction of his life. Alex Jones tries to win Josh back to his old job, but it wont work. He met his baptist on the airplane and this little girl submerges him into the water of compassion. She wakes him up to the consequences of his life’s direction and once he sees it, repentance begins. He turns around. He chooses a different path. He quits his job.

Sometimes, the River Jordan sneaks up on us and John looks less like a wild man and more like an innocent child. Sometimes, we aren’t flocking with a crowd of people who want to change the direction of their lives – but rather we have been walking alone, along the edge of change for a long time and unable to step across the threshold into the fruitful work of repentance. God sends the right prophet into our lives and she pushes us into water.

I don’t go into every encounter expecting that someone will radically change my direction, but God is very good at using other people to be prophets when I need to repent and be redirected. There have been plenty of times that I was surprised, with delight or disappointment, to have my path changed by events unfolding into an invitation to repent, a new awareness, a pulling back of the curtain to reveal what was previously hidden from me. The river rises around my ankles and then flows over my head as I recognize the reign of God all around me.

I wonder who will be the Baptist for you? Perhaps, there is a small child waiting for you on an airplane? Whomever you encounter, let the reign of God come near and submerge you in the water; you will be invited to change your life direction.