Working the List

Working the List

 

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” Philippians 2:12

 

“For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin.”                       St. Alphonsus Liguori

 

Yesterday, I asked you to come up with a short list of “some unhelpful or unhealthy patterns of behavior in your life.”  If you missed yesterday, think about that list now.  What are some patterns of thought and/or behavior that you know aren’t good for you or others around you?  This is the step one of confession; AA calls this a “fearless moral inventory.”  The goal is to be brutally honest with ourselves about where we fall short. 

Usually, this leads to regret, or sorrow.  We find ourselves wishing things could have been different.  We often feel very sorry.  It’s important not to skip over this, but it’s also important not to get stuck here.  My experience and things that people have shared with me over the years tells me we often get mired in the sorrow.  The “recordings” of the wrongdoing keep playing over and over in our head and throw us into an endless spiral of shame.  Perhaps, even those who we’ve hurt are committed to making sure we are reminded of our sins on a regular basis.  Shame, however, is no basis for a restored relationship, whether it’s with God or with other people.  It’s important to move to the next step, which is a determination to do better.  Where this determination is absent, we ask God to nurture it in us. 

The desire to be on a better path is necessary, but we must not confuse that desire for things to be different with the power to make it so.  That power comes from God, not us.  We have to want that power to work in our lives though.  Once we are at the point where we are convinced that “things have to change,” we invite God to do the surgery.  We ask for forgiveness and for “deliverance from evil.”  And then as Paul states in the scripture above, we “work out our salvation” trusting that God’s redemptive power is doing the work along with us.  We also trust in God’s forgiveness which frees us not only from the sin itself, but also the spiral of shame.  We exhibit this trust by moving to stop replaying those recordings of self-condemnation and replace them with reminders of hope and deliverance.  It is rarely instantaneous, but be must commit to this crucial transition.

Today, we remember, among other things, that Jesus spent some time in the Garden of Gethsemane in fervent prayer.  I invite you to do the same working with your list and asking for God’s will to be done, not your own.  Until tomorrow.

 

Prayer:  Search me God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:24)

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for health care workers and teachers today.

 

Song:  Take Time to Be Holy – Islington Baptist Church Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFApbg-wcmE