How To Turn Your Life Around in 30 Days

The Word We've Been Avoiding

In this Crowd Church talk, Matt Edmundson opens with a bold claim: real change doesn’t take years. He argues it can begin in 30 days, or even 30 minutes.

That sounds exaggerated, and he admits it probably is, but the idea behind it is serious. Lasting freedom rarely comes from new habits, better systems, or positive thinking alone. It begins with something far less popular in modern culture: taking full responsibility for where we are, how we got here, and the ways we’ve been wrong. There’s a simple word discussed in this post that really can change everything (if we stop avoiding it…)

A Son Who Lost Everything

The talk centres on a well-known ancient story: the Parable of the Prodigal Son. A hardworking father has two sons. The younger one grows tired of his life - bored with the way he's living, wanting more, wanting to live life to the max in his own authentic way. So he asks for his inheritance early.

The father splits his assets. Within days, the son packs up and heads to far away lands. He wastes everything on what the Bible calls "prodigal living" - wine, parties, all of it.

Then things get really bad. There's a famine in the land. The son ends up with the worst job imaginable at that time - feeding pigs. Matt emphasised this point: "The Bible tells us that he would've gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, but no one gave him anything. Not the farmer, not the landowner. Nobody gave him a thing."

This rich, spoiled kid has lost everything. He's working the worst job in the world. He's perpetually starving. And no one seems to care about him.

Yet even at rock bottom, he manages to turn his life around.

Coming to His Senses

Here's how Luke's Gospel describes the turning point:

When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, "At home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say, 'Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.'" (Luke 15: 17 - 19, NLT.)

Matt identified two things happening here - the keys to turning your life around:

"Firstly, the son changed his mind, and secondly, he changed his actions. It's where inward decisions become an outward action."

There's a word for this. And it's probably made you uncomfortable already.

Reclaiming Repentance

The word is repentance. Matt acknowledged the baggage:

"I think many of us over the years have probably had bad experiences with this word. We've probably had an adverse reaction as it came out of my mouth, and we file it under the bad column in our minds and it becomes one of those words we try not to use and we try not to talk about."

But here's his case for reclaiming it:

"Repentance, in my opinion, is life giving in so many ways. It simply means to turn your life around. To repent is to turn your life around. To turn your life around is to repent. It's the same thing."

Like the prodigal son, it starts with changing your mind. You've been living one way - hungry, amongst the pigs, all that goes with that. You come to your senses. You realise the way you've been living isn't working and something needs to change.

"That change starts with your mind. It starts with your thinking. And that inward decision results in an outward change. In an outward action. In other words, your behaviors change when you change your mind."

Why We Don't Like This

So why is repentance so unpopular? Matt got to the heart of it:

"He has to own his mistakes, his sin. He said that he'd sinned against both heaven and his father. And when he has this revelation, when this dawns upon him, this is in fact him owning the mistakes, owning the sin that he has committed."

You have to own where your life is at for it to change.

And we don't like that.

"Fundamentally, we don't like to be told that we are wrong. Not in any way. You can see that from the way kids behave, even the way dogs behave when they realize they're wrong. We just don't like it."

Matt quoted Ryan Anderson on what he called our "culture of expressive individualism":

"The person was a creature of God who sought to conform himself to the truth, to the objective moral standards in pursuit of eternal life. Modern man, however, seeks to be true to himself rather than conform thoughts, feelings, and actions to objective reality. Man's inner life itself becomes the source of truth... Authenticity to inner feelings rather than adherence to transcendent truths becomes the norm."

Matt's honest response: "When I read this and think about what he's saying, I find myself in agreement. I think I am that modern man."

Owning vs Projecting

The modern version of the prodigal son, Matt suggested, wouldn't own his sin. He'd become the victim - of his father, of the farmer who wouldn't give him anything, of circumstances beyond his control.

"We've stopped owning things. We don't own it. We project it. It becomes somebody else's fault."

This goes all the way back to Eden. When Adam was asked about his sin, the very first thing he did was blame Eve. "It's not my fault, God, it's her fault."

Matt shared a Twitter exchange he'd joined about marriage and faithfulness, where people debated who was to blame in various scenarios. His conclusion:

"What you can't do though, with all those nuances around it, is do what Adam did and stand before God and say, God, it's not my fault I've committed adultery. It's the fact my wife won't have sex with me. That's just not gonna wash, is it?"

It's often our default, like Adam, to not own things.

Why Projecting Keeps You Stuck

Here's the problem with making ourselves the victim:

"I think that thinking keeps you trapped right where you are. It does not change your life one bit."

Matt referenced the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who claimed humans were born essentially moral - the opposite of Christian doctrine about original sin. According to Rousseau, it's society and the church that explain corruption. Sin is society's fault, not ours.

Matt noted drily that this same philosopher sent all five of his children to an orphanage shortly after they were born, "pretty much sending each one to their own death. No doubt, that was also somebody else's fault and not his."

If we remove God from the equation - if we're not made in his image - then there's no absolute moral standard to submit to.

"All that matters in their worldview is our expressive individualism, the right to live life how we see fit. So who's to actually say the prodigal son was wrong to live the way that he did? Why did he call it sin? What if he was just being authentic to who he was?"

The Path to Freedom

Matt was clear about his purpose: "I say all of this, not to condemn, but to provoke."

The provocation is this: "I think we've gotten used to the idea that we are right all of the time, that it is our thoughts and feelings that are the ultimate source of truth, and that society has to affirm that otherwise we are victims and oppressed."

But if we want to turn our lives around, we first have to come to our senses. We have to realise that the best way to live life is God's way, not necessarily our way.

Matt quoted Isaiah: "My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."

And then this crucial insight:

"I believe it's only when we own it that we can be free from it. Otherwise, we stay as perpetual victims and our lives don't turn around. They stay stuck."

This doesn't mean people haven't wronged you. Matt acknowledged that directly: "People may well have wronged you. They have me, and that's real, and that's pain, and possibly even trauma and abuse."

But staying in that place keeps you imprisoned. Repentance in that situation means "turning away from our way, from the anger, from the bitterness, from the resentment, turning towards God in his way, saying, God, help me to forgive."

The Father Who Was Watching

The story has a beautiful ending. Once the son headed home:

While he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I'm no longer worthy of being called your son."

But his father said to the servants, "Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet and kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found." So the party began. (Luke 15: 20 - 24, NLT.)

Matt drew out something easy to miss: "Did you notice that the father was looking for his son all the time? Waiting for him? He saw him while he was a long way off. But did you also notice that the father couldn't go and fetch him? He had to wait for his son to come to his senses. But boy, when he did, the party began."

Two Applications

Matt closed with two direct applications:

"If you are not a Christ follower, then repentance means turning away from living life without him to living life with him. You turn to him and it is he that welcomes you and transforms your life. It's not about your hard work. It's about letting Christ really be the king of your heart."

"And if you are a Christian, repentance is turning back to God and letting him transform your life. It's not about saying sorry and then falling back into the same repeatable patterns. It's about renewing your mind to be in line with his and allowing the spirit of God that is living within you to shape you into the likeness of God that you have been called to."

Your Next Step This Week

Matt offered three questions to sit with honestly:

1. What do I need to own? - Where have you been projecting blame rather than taking responsibility?

2. Where does my thinking need to change? - What beliefs or assumptions are out of line with God's truth?

3. What behaviours need to change? - What outward actions will follow from that inward shift?

Or to put it simply: What do I need to repent of? Ask God. He'll show you.

The Party Begins

The prodigal son's life turned around. Not through self-improvement or positive thinking, but through owning his reality, changing his mind, and heading home.

His father didn't lecture him. Didn't make him grovel. Didn't say "I told you so."

He ran to meet him. He threw a party.

That's what's waiting on the other side of repentance. Not condemnation - celebration. Not a life of grovelling - a life of freedom.

He was lost, but now he is found.

The party can begin for you too.