Coming back to God isn’t a walk of shame. It’s a welcome party you didn’t RSVP to.

Shame writes a script for the return and it is always humiliating. In it you come back quietly, sit at the back and spend a year proving you are serious. What happens is closer to being met at the door by someone who was already watching for you.

If you have been away, go back this week without the apology tour you have been rehearsing. Say one honest sentence to God and let that be the whole ceremony. The welcome is not something you have to earn your way into.