I ask forgiveness. I did not get to post this yesterday. Forgive me for backdating it. For those of you who know, or even don’t know me, I have been dealing with intense difficulties dealing with my sister. She has recently been hospitalized for a whole month, is now in rehab, and as of yesterday, we are dealing with finding her a place to live immediately. For a while yesterday, it seemed the only alternative was a SNF, better known as a nursing home. Now, however, our hopes are renewed (at least for now) is that she may enter a different assisted living place which is staffed with nurses, but has a whole different “vibe” and will be a better fit for the multiple issues she faces. Therefore, I ask forgiveness, I repent, that I failed to post this yesterday. Maybe we all need to give ourselves a measure of grace when we “mess up,” huh?
It’s hard to admit to ourselves, much less our Almighty God, that we mere humans fail to recognize our shortcomings–or what God calls sins. I’m hearing the sponsors of Hallow (hope I spelled it right!) who are urging us during Lent to be “prayed up.” Well, we need to confess our inadequacies to our Just God, for we fail from the minute we wake until we sleep, whether restlessly or soundly, and God calls it sin. We all, the Word says, fail to love God with our entire being–body, soul, spirit– and most assuredly fail to love others as ourselves. So Jesus said, we “fall short,” and many of us fail to not only see our own sin, but deal with it, knowing that Jesus gave His life to remove those sins far from us–as far as the east is from the west, or as high as the rocket launch last night into space orbit. He “removes” our sins–past, present, future! Isn’t that amazing? It’s what Lent and Easter and eternity and immense God-Love are all about. Right?
So, it’s a good thing to write a response journal (my book includes daily journal space) to God in confession. I did when I wrote this particular psalm, because my pride gets in the way when I pray. I’m more apt to pray intercession for my long list of prayers for people in my life who are in need of healiing or direction, or wisdom, or patience, or for my own inadequacies dealing with problems I think I, the almighty I, need to solve. I lack the trust that I say, but still take the wheel, “Lord, this problem is too big for me to solve. I give it all to You,” and when breakthroughs come, such as yesterday when “out ot he blue” another problem solution appears, I fail to recognize it as a Godincidence. It’s a God Thing! He provided an answer I was not, in my wildest imagination, expecting. And it was right after my dear friend reminded me to “give it to the Lord, yet again” and within minutes, a dear social worker suggested another alternative. When I told her I had just prayed that we could find another solution to the immense problem of a new facility for my sisteer, she had an answer neither of us as considered before that short conversation. It’s definitely an answer to prayer when we both saw it as a solution to a weighty complex problem we’re trying to solve. So, once again, God, the giver of surprises, calls us to repent when we think we know it all, and He reveals His power when our resources fail. Isn’t He just awesome.
I hope you expect such blessings today when you take the courage to say, “God, forgive me. I’m at my wit’s end. I can’t solve this problem myself,” or “God, you gotta help me here. I’m messin’ this up. Set me on the right path, in Your might and wisdom, and help me see the huge highway ahead of me that you have prepared. I was just stumblin’ along, and You took my hand. . . or better yet,. . . you carried me like the proverbial steps on the beach when you carried me forward. All I had to do was to confess I needed You, and You said, “Ah, so you finally noticed, once again, how much I love you, my child! My response: “Yes, Lore, I need you. Oh, how I need You.” And He reached down and said, “Come, as a child, come humbly, and I will show you the way.”
Can you honestly repent this Lenten season? Can you humble yourself and admit that you need to bow to Him, not just once in a while, but recognize His majesty and know the forgiving love with which He accepts our apologies? Will you, with me, promise to stay “prayed up?”
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