A Model of Repentance from Rev. 2

Reviewing the letters of Revelation this afternoon. The proscribed errors and the prescribed solutions. Jesus's prescription for the Ephesian church seems the most universal of all.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. (2.4)

Three steps: 1) Remember from where you have fallen, 2) Repent, 3) Return to the first works. The prescriptions for the other churches include things like being faithful unto death (Smyrna, Thyatira) and buying treasure from Jesus (3.18) (which is the most unique and abstract of the of the prescriptions). But the most programmatic and typical seems to be the one given to Ephesus.
1) Remember. What does a mountain climber see when he has fallen? Looking up he can see where he was, and this sight stirs a desire to return. There is the depression of knowing he was once there, and must re-step his steps; but there is also the pressing sense that he was once there, and can be again. This assumes he is an actual mountain climber who wants to climb the mountain. Those out for a stroll who happened to climb part of the mountain because the trail happened to go that way are unlikely, having fallen, to continue that direction. The casual hiker looks up and feels only stupidity for having fallen down the mountain he didn't want to climb in the first place.
But the Christian wants to climb, and so desire and remorse, not stupidity, is stirred up in him when he looks back up. And even more so by the fact that it was his own careless disregard and waywardness that caused the fall, and not some loose rock he happened to step on. It was no accidental fall; he had in some way chosen it (though he could not have had the pain and bruising and eventual length of it in mind when he made the choice). So he 2) Repents of the cursed choice that has brought him low. Of course the repentance means he thinks evil of the choice; he turns the choice over in his heart, despising it from every angle and shoving insults and cuss words into it like prayer slips in the Western Wall. But to a greater degree his repentance consists in a simple resolution not to make again the same choice. This second part is really more valuable than the first. He can insult and cram full the choice until it's nothing but a wad of paper vibrating with expletives, but as often as he makes the choice he shows it to be his master. He must resolve not to do it again, and the most sure resolution not to do it again is the act of not doing it again. A mere internal resolution is only another passing insult if it is not acted out. A resolution indeed is a resolution in deed.
Which makes the third step: 3) Return to the first works. Instead of the work that caused the fall (or more accurately all the works that caused all the inches of the fall, because the fall was probably more like a tumble than a cliff-drop) do the "first works." In this context, the works of love (2.4). (It looks like these are works of love for each other and/or Christ, or works of love for Christ through love for others; cf. Matt. 25.45; 1 Jn 4.7). No belaboring the repentance in the first sense. No prescription of wallowing or self-flagellation for the shame of the act(s). The best repentance is not hatred of sin but acts of righteousness.

We see the hill where we once stood and long to be again
A quiet curse we whisper on our choice of knowing sin
And glare in hatred up the skids where tumbled bodies ran
Then turn to do the works we did back when we first began