So today we stared singing "Open to me the doors of repentance..." in Church. The Lenten triodion has begun. Am I ready? Am I ever ready?
I doubt it.
In fact, when God opens to me the doors of repentance, I'm just as likely as not to walk straight into the door jamb. That bruise you see in my forehead...
Because that is the very nature of repentance. We pray for it, we ask for it "create in me a clean heart, O God..." and yet, in this life...
we fall down...
we get back up.
we fall down....
we get back up.
We pray "open to me the doors of repentance", and then we walk into the doorjamb and don't actually go THROUGH the door.
I can think of all the ways I have gotten complacent. I ponder the areas of my life about which I must cry out to God for mercy and say "purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean"....that, my friends, is a literal prayer for God to cleanse us of our shit. That's what a "purge" is, and that is what the hyssop plant does. It is a medicinal that is used for colon cleansing.
So let's hope that this year, when we walk into the door jamb of repentance we will also trip on it and fall flat on our faces.
Have mercy on me, O God....
I doubt it.
In fact, when God opens to me the doors of repentance, I'm just as likely as not to walk straight into the door jamb. That bruise you see in my forehead...
Because that is the very nature of repentance. We pray for it, we ask for it "create in me a clean heart, O God..." and yet, in this life...
we fall down...
we get back up.
we fall down....
we get back up.
We pray "open to me the doors of repentance", and then we walk into the doorjamb and don't actually go THROUGH the door.
I can think of all the ways I have gotten complacent. I ponder the areas of my life about which I must cry out to God for mercy and say "purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean"....that, my friends, is a literal prayer for God to cleanse us of our shit. That's what a "purge" is, and that is what the hyssop plant does. It is a medicinal that is used for colon cleansing.
So let's hope that this year, when we walk into the door jamb of repentance we will also trip on it and fall flat on our faces.
Have mercy on me, O God....
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