I wanted to share this spiritual message with you as I reviewed my own personal life as we began this new Ecclesiastical Year.

Walt Disney was a perfectionist, which, at times, made him an extremely difficult person. He is said to have been a ruthless film editor. As his films were made, he would cut any scene from a movie if he thought that it interfered in any way with the flow of the story. One of his top animators worked on a scene from Snow White for 8 months, completing a four and a half minute clip. Everyone loved it – except Mr. Disney – and it landed on the floor.

As Orthodox Christians, we know that one day we will stand before Christ to give an accounting of our lives.  Wouldn’t is be wonderful if we could “edit” certain things out of them? There are things which we have done that don’t quite fit in with the Orthodox Christian way of life we profess to follow. We have all done things of which we are ashamed – things we would love to edit and rewrite. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Marc Anthony speaks these chilling words: “The evil that men do lives on, while the good is often interred with their bones.”  This appears to be home life unfolds for all of us.

One moment of weakness can change a life from a masterpiece into a mess. That’s the way it is …or is it? Indeed, the Church teaches us that this is not the way it is – or it doesn’t have to be. We can edit out the bad scenes of our life through repentance. Christ offers us the opportunity to cast aside that which has brought us down in the past. He encourages us to confess our sins, express our sorrow for them and seek forgiveness. It is our challenge in life to do so. Like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, he is always willing to take us back. Isn’t this the Father we have in Heaven?

I pray our Father in Heaven will grant us a time to edit our lives and take us back, as He did His prodigal son.