Repentance and God's Forgiveness

Here is what is both amazing and hard about being Orthodox Christians. The season of Lent is a preparation for Easter. The season we are in right now? Pre-Lent. Preparing for Lent. This faith is raising the bar on holiness and devotion to a level that is...well, set apart. Thanks be to God for molding our character through these seasons. This past Sunday our priest made me cry--in the children's time. It was the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. I have heard this parable many times, it is familiar to most people. He shared how as a little boy he "ran away from home" and when he got down the street he realized that he would be cold, hungry and needed his parents after all. They were there waiting for him on the porch with open arms. Such a simple message, but how true for us too? We turn our backs on God in big and little ways and all we need to do is repent and come back to him. He is waiting with his arms open to us. I've been trying to reflect on what true repentance is. So often I return to the same sins over and over again. I was reading about gaining a repentant heart through prayer, fasting, and works for the needy. The last one was the part that interested me. My initial thought was, "How can acts of service to others help me to stop sinning?" but as I've been thinking about it more, and in light of the verses about "what you do for the least of these...", it seems likely that taking the focus off me and putting it on helping others could really help me to love Jesus more, thus raising my awareness of my sin and how it separates me from God. I suppose God could use that to help the recipient of my help as well as heal me. Okay, that's great. What does that mean for me? That is my next question. I will be pondering on my (4th day in a row) two hour delay tomorrow.