To repent is to allow God’s grace to reach us and to speak to us in our places of guilt and fear. It is the act of choosing to turn away from ways and attitudes that inhibit God’s grace, and to open ourselves to his light and truth. Nor can we understand and embrace the true missional spirit of Jesus reaching out in love so long as we harbor a lack of forgiveness. Repenting of our hardness of heart allows us to see others with eyes of compassion and to reach out in love toward them.