Finding our confession

Becoming transparent to ourselves is not the easiest of disciplines to master. In the frailty of our humanness we constantly struggle for balance to be the kind of person that others will like. Yet there is the voice within, that often quiet suppressed voice within that asks whether you are acceptable to you and we are confronted with realities we would rather not acknowledge.
Parker J. Palmer, author of my favorite book, ‘Let your Life Speak’ is confronted by moments that cause him to acknowledge, ‘the life I am living is not the same as the life that wants to live in me.’ He uses an old Quaker saying to speak encouragement and sometimes confrontation of self into peoples lives, ‘let your life speak.’ The most confronting yet most life giving statement I’ve ever heard.
When we begin to acknowledge the true self that is emerging from within we are sometimes hesitant because we may not like what we see or are apprehensive about how our true self may be received by others. I once heard a friend of mine say to another, ‘receive yourself’.
I think it is difficult to find your self, your true self unless you can find and speak your confession before God. Until we are able to do that we deny the self that exists within and impose our denial on others. It is not until we can find our confession that we can receive ourselves and in turn receive others.

‘God help me find my confession;
The truth within me which is hidden from my mind;
The beauty or the ugliness I see elsewhere but never in myself;
The stowaway which has been smuggled into the darkness of my heart,
Which puts my heart off balance and causes me pain,
Which wearies and confuses me,
Which tips me in false directions and inclines me to destruction,
The load which is not carried squarely because it is carried in ignorance.
God help me find my confession;
Help me across the boundary of my understanding,
Lead me into the darkness that I may find what is concealed;
That I may confess it towards the light;
That I may carry my truth in the centre of my heart;
That I may carry my cross wisely
And bring harmony into my life and into the world’
Author unknown

May you be encouraged to find your confession, to let your life speak and allow harmony to prosper in your life and the world around you.

Shalom
Mark