Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings):
Ezekiel 18.21-28 | Psalm 130 | Matthew 5.20-26

Set me free from myself

How hard it is to have made a mistake! Simply to accept it, without looking for excuses. Without trying to escape the burden of the mistake, without making two or three others pay the consequences or blaming it on society, circumstances, or just bad luck. Without trying to find ten good reasons …

How difficult it is to admit making a mistake. Without being angry and defending myself with meaningless arguments. Without always attempting to be blameless, free of sin …

O God set me free from the fear of having to admit my mistakes. Whether mistakes at work, at school, or at home.

"Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or, 'No, No'" (Matthew 5:37).

In order to do this, Lord, I have to be an adult. An adult, and not that tight-lipped little boy or girl with a bad conscience.

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways." (1 Corinthians 13:11).

Lord in order that I might accept the healing bite of truth, set me free from myself.

—Paul Geres. Prayers for impossible days, tr. from French by Lucien Jerphagon. Revised edition. Augsburg Books, 2001.

"I stand hear before you, your unprofitable servant."—Prayer of the Old Horse.