“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”” Isaiah 30:15

I remember those times as a tile layer. Moments of inner anguish when I realized that I had started out incorrectly, and would have to start over. At the beginning, it seems like it happened every day. I would get started laying tile in a bathroom, or kitchen floor, and despite all my best planning and prep, I would get about a third of the way into it and realize that something in the layout was wrong, or perhaps one of the tiles that I laid early on was out of line throwing everything else off. The only way to right the wrong was to take up all the tiles I had laid, scrape off the thinset, and start over.

But that’s often not what is done. When confronted with a mistake it’s easier to shrug it off with a “it’ll be ok”. But those little mistakes ignored often result in headache and trouble down the road. So it is with tile. If you start off wrong in the layout, it only gets worse the farther you get. If you fail to cement the tile correctly, it’s going to come off later and be a much more difficult fix.

What I find stunning about the Isaiah 30:15, is that he pairs the words repentance with rest. Repentance means to turn around, or in the world of tile, to start over. To recognize something was wrong and go back to the where the mistake was made. When people shrug off their mistakes, it’s because repentance seems to hard. When I would realize that I had done something wrong, it was so easy to want to just ignore it. But what I found from experience is that if I would just go ahead and acknowledge the problem, and do what was needed to fix it then and there, it was usually much easier than I expected. Tiles come up easy while the thin set is still wet. And they can be relaid just as easy. So much easier than waiting until they are hard and set and then bringing in a hammer and chisel.

 So do you see mistakes you’ve made in your life? Don’t put off turning around and doing the right thing. Make the hard decision with the easy outcome instead of the easy decision with the harder outcome.