confession

Opening Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that you see the real me, no matter how hard I might try to hide it.  Thank you that you invite me to live my life openly and honestly before you.  Help me to have the courage to do so.  Lord, have mercy.  Amen. 

Scripture: Psalm 32:3-5

Journal: In what ways are you not living truly and openly before yourself, your God, and your world?  What would it look like to be real?  How can the practice of confession help that process?

Reflection: “When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.  Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:3-5)

Not only is there a freedom and a life that is found through confession, but there is also a deep sense of humility; which, although hard, is a very good thing.  We can never have too much humility.  It creates such fertile soil within and among us for the Spirit to move and to work and to act. 

Confession brings us face-to-face with who we really are, much to our dismay.  It cuts through all the bullshit; all the ways we try to manage and control how others see us.  It forces us to be real.  It takes us all the way down to the ground.  It enables others see our mess, our ugliness, and our total dependence on God, which is not the easiest or the most comfortable thing in the world, but is a process that is essential to life-giving community.

When we refuse to confess, we lock ourselves up in the prison of the make-believe.  A place where we can’t truly get to know people and they can’t get to know the real us.  Thus, we end up living in loneliness and hypocrisy, which is no life at all.

God wants so much more for us than that.  He wants peace and joy and life and love—all of which is impossible if we are not living truly and openly with him, with ourselves, and with others.  That is the beautiful gift that confession offers, if we are brave enough to go there.

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  Here I am, O Lord, all of me—no covering, no posturing, and no pretense.  Just the real me, standing naked and vulnerable before you.  And, as best I know how, I give all of myself to you—the good the bad and the ugly.  Have mercy on me, O Lord.  Amen.