Lectio Divina
Search me, O God,
and know my anxious heart.
Lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139
Where your treasure is
there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6
Reflection
We were taught to fear the breaking of rules.
Religion was loud around behavior.
Guilt, burden, comparison,
and a performative faith were its outcomes.
But sin is not mere transgression.
It is the bending of love.
The heart turns inward.
Imperceptible. Arranging the world
so it feels secure, admired, needed.
Sin is not always a rebellion.
It’s often self-protection.
We don’t wake up wanting to harm others.
We wake up wanting to matter.
Somewhere in that wanting,
the center shifts.
Confession is not condemnation.
It is honesty, awareness of that bend.
Grace is the gentle, patient straightening.
Prayer
God who sees without flinching,
I confess the quiet bend
the subtle rearranging
how I place self at center
how I seek to be necessary
how I measure worth in what can be counted by men.
LORD
What fear has taught me to clench,
help me to loosen.
I am returning to you.
Blessing
Dear Friend
May you begin the lenten journey
with a confession of sin that
doesn’t seek religious approval,
but congruence.
May you do the slow and faithful work
of searching the heart
for its self deceptions
and underlying fears.
May your confession lead you
to a God who not only forgives
but creates beauty
from what was once bent.
Notice the tension
in your body, mind, and soul.
Allow God’s grace upon grace
to meet you there.
In the Name of the One
who makes all things new.
Amen