CREEDE HINSHAW: Confessing sin can be an eye-opener

Don’t start confessing sin unless you want to become more aware of sin.

For my Lenten journey, I am reading the Order for Daily Morning Prayer (Rite I) in the Book of Common Prayer. The daily service takes around 30 minutes or longer if one reflected on each prayer and passage of scripture.

The Book of Common Prayer is a gift given the world by the Church of England, containing some of the most graceful, orthodox and stately enriching one’s spiritual life.

The Order for Daily Morning Prayer is designed for a congregational context but can be adapted profitably in one’s own home. Early in the order comes a general confession of sin, the logic being that one should confess one’s own unrighteousness before proceeding to praise and thanksgiving, scripture reading and intercession for others.

Here is part of that inspiring prayer: “… we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done …”

Praying these words daily has opened my eyes to my sin, a healthy (but not very enjoyable) discipline for any season.

Earlier this week, driving down a four-lane highway, I noticed a car coming up fairly fast in my rear view mirror. The traffic was thin and I surmised the driver would overtake me and be on her way. She did pass me and then pulled back in front of me. Everything was fine until a few blocks later she slowed to almost a complete stop and turned right. I slowed down, too, in some frustration and whined, “If she was going to turn, why did she pass me in the first place? Couldn’t she have just stayed behind me, causing both of us less trouble?”

No sooner had I asked that self-righteous question than came the answer, swift, decisive and chastening: about one mile further back the road I had pulled from a side street in front of this very same person, having misjudged the speed at which she was heading down the road.

I had pulled in front of her by mistake. But maybe she pulled in front of me by mistake, too. I had given myself a free pass, but wasn’t intending to do so for her. Go easy on myself, but not on others!

Praying this daily prayer of confession – led by God’s Spirit – has opened my eyes and heart to my self-righteousness. It’s not always a pretty picture, but in the daily confrontation with self one engages in the same battle with temptation that Jesus waged in the wilderness. My awareness of sin – committed and omitted – has been cropping up with more frequency this Lent. And accompanying that awareness sometimes comes a determination to practice more faithful purity.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].