Wednesday, December 04, 2013
"I Did It"
John D. Blase wrote last Lenten season:
I have written many time here that confession is the core of our faith. What Blase makes plain here, I think, is that it is more than the core of our faith, it is the core of our emotional and mental well-being.
Yes, we did do it. Yes, we are guilty. But we have a Savior that loves us anyway. That means we can respect ourselves even in our guilt. That is the source of our nobility.I love the fact that he differentiates nobility and pride. How often we confuse the two.
So which are you, noble or proud?
Nobility Pride self-respect
Lent is often referred to as days of bright sadness. My experience with this season so far is that it is much easier to be sad than bright. We, the people can give the pigs a run for their money in the game of wallowing. Yes, it is a season for mourning, for taking a look at the stains on our fingers, stains that never ever occur in a vacuum. But that is not all, for in those moments lie the seeds of something else if we’re willing to take and plant.Not a lack of guilt, but guilt resolved. No escape from our sins, but a working out of our salvation.
Joan Didion once wrote, “The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.” Our ancestors in Genesis accepted responsibility for their lives; they said “I did it.” Lent provides us that same opportunity which, if taken, results in the virtue known as self-respect. Verily, verily I say this is something much different than self-esteem. Self-respect fashions a man or woman as noble. Not proud, but noble.
I have written many time here that confession is the core of our faith. What Blase makes plain here, I think, is that it is more than the core of our faith, it is the core of our emotional and mental well-being.
Yes, we did do it. Yes, we are guilty. But we have a Savior that loves us anyway. That means we can respect ourselves even in our guilt. That is the source of our nobility.I love the fact that he differentiates nobility and pride. How often we confuse the two.
So which are you, noble or proud?
Nobility Pride self-respect
