Thoughts on Confession

Confession, as the response to our sin, is more akin to lament and sorrow than disappointment and discouragement. It is a longing for the promised and, yet, unrealized union with God. Confession is not synonymous with berating, demeaning and self-deprecating comments. Confession is a longing, a sadness, a deep desire for life with God. Confession is the alternative to "pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps" and gritting our teeth trying to work harder to please God. Confession is a realization of our inability to please God in our own strength. It is the awareness of the distance from God and who God wants us to be. Confession says, "I'm not surprised by my sin, and my awareness of my sin serves, all the more, to confirm my need for a Savior." Confession is the expression of our utter incapability to be who God wants us to be unless God does that work in us and for us.

On Lent

From www.sacredspaces.ie,

We are at the start of Lent, the time of the year when the church invites us to test our freedom, and to question the notion: I can take it or leave it alone. Try that with grumbling, drunkenness, talking about yourself, stealing, gambling, or other habits that diminish our freedom. What habits make you hard to live with? Lent is about regaining control of our own lives, especially in those areas that damage other people. We don't admire those whose appetites or habits lead them by the nose. Nearly all of us have habits, or even addictions, that keep us from God, and harm both ourselves and others. These seven weeks before Easter help us to focus our energy on improving.