Why so much repenting?

I had thought this post on Dreher's blog was too convoluted to read (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/nominalist-church-ross-douthat-year-zero/ ) but since it was what was open on my laptop this morning, I read it. This morning, the commentary makes a great deal of sense and helps me better understand why Dreher loved Laurus, the novel which I read on his recommendation, and enjoyed, but did not share his sense of awe about. (It just seemed to me like a novelized version of the stories of so many of the saints I read about every day. Nice but why so earth shattering?) The concept of sacramental time, a term he borrows from an Evangelical theologian,( but isn't it really what Kairos means(?)) explains a great deal. Dreher is, as always, using it to explain what is wrong with the liberal, progressive wings of Christianity, but I don't even care about that. I have chosen Orthodoxy. Or rather, Orthodoxy has chosen me. And I can eagerly accept the Communion of Saints—by which I think we mean the continuing presence of those who have died in the flesh—and I wonder—those who are not yet born? Thanks to Doxacon (Orthodox Science Fiction convention), I know I am not alone in viewing the time travel of adventures of Dr. Who as explaining in some way the "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" effect of Christ's crucifixion.

This is important in helping me think about the big whole life confession I will be making when I am chrismated into the Orthodox communion.  Didn't I already repent of all the things I did before my first conversion at age 18? Don't I believe that Jesus has already wiped all those things out, cleaned the slate? And then I did a formal, Episcopal Church confession once to Father Burt, so really, why dredge up the past again? The Evangelicals loved to retell their "testimonies," recounting how bad they were before they repented and I found that got old fast. Why weren't we focusing at least half the time on our current struggle for sanctification (which is what the Wesleyan Nazarenes believe can be achieved and which, I have to admit, is a belief that is much closer to Orthodoxy than I had expected (or wanted, since I had decided perfect sanctification was an unrealistic goal that sets us up for despair)?  

I get that salvation is a journey and not a one-time event, though I worry that can devolve into a Calvinistic fear of "am I elect to be saved"? But this is wrong, according to blogger, Eric Hyde, "repentance does not carry the stigmatism [sic] of dwelling in nagging despair over one’s eternal resting place—the feeling that at any moment one can “lose his salvation”—but [repentance] is rather the power to maintain the gift of God’s grace; as St. Cyril of Jerusalem (cir. 380 AD) said, “It is for God to grant His grace, your task is to accept that grace and to guard it.” https://ehyde.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/orthodoxy-and-repentance/ .  But more important still is the concept of Kairos time.  T.S. Eliot worried unduly (or un-Orthodoxly) when he wrote "If all time is eternally present / all time is unredeemable" (Burnt Norton). I think it is just the opposite. All time is eternally present and all events in chronos time are being transformed into something new and Holy in Kairos time continually through continual repentance! That's it: I get it!