A friend asked me how I landed on my recent thinking about confession. Here was my response. I want to remember it:
First of all, I was struck when you confessed a while back. I sensed a
sincerity, a strength, and a humility as you did it. It left an
impression on me. Since that time, I've thought often about why that
happens so little, so infrequently. And, this became some of the
genesis of thinking for me about who we truly are, which returned me to Nouwen's thoughts. Who are we really? And, then, why we don't act like it? Tom
reminded us (confessed) of the truth of our more common commitments,
which I translated into our individual and shared commitment to filter
what is revealed about ourselves. Hiding significant parts of ourselves
from view, from others, from ourselves. And, so the question emerged,
why? Why do we live out of something other than we are? Especially
when at the right moment, none of us really wants to?
At this point, I wanted to take this further, to push a little harder
on it, by saying that we don't confess very much. But then your image
came to mind and I realized that we do confess. You did. I did a bit
more...acknowledging what is true about me because you acknowledged your
truth. And, so the idea of
invitation introduced itself to this concept and overtook the spirit of chastisement I
was headed towards about myself and others. We are simply invited to
confess...and we do well to take up the invitation. So you were on my mind as I prepared and it become more clear what you did as I spoke -- both intended and spontaneous.
This is the great surprise that we aren't yet familiar with...such
things are a joy, powerful, and freeing rather than the version of
whatever holds us back from 'jumping from the precipice'.
So I
thank you, for giving me the permission to explore this within
myself these last few weeks...because of your confession.
By the way, the last lines of the Lord's Prayer are confession, too:
"For your is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever."
When we acknowledge what is true, we confess just as much as we do when we acknowledge our sins.
Thanks for asking....
