10.24.23 - Psalm 38:17-18, 21-22
Repentance is meaningless without the possibility of restoration. How might you move as though restored, and offer the same opportunity for others?
For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin... Do not forsake me, O Lord; O my God, do not be far from me; make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
Secure attachment is the need behind this Psalm.
It’s been broken and frayed because of the guilt, shame and wrong-doing of the Psalmist.
But it is not fractured forever.
Religious words like confession and repentance can carry some heavy emotional and psychological baggage depending on the ways they’ve been interpreted or misused in varying traditions.
However, the Psalmist is taking inventory of their actions, their embodied experience of being out of sync with love. They want to make it right, they are truly sorry for their poor choices and misalignment.
They’re taking steps to make it right - and crying out for listener (God) to hear and not reject them. Confession and repentance are so much more than the right words at the right time, it’s full-bodied realignment and change, and especially capacity for love-filled action.
How is your attachment with God today? Can you audit your actions and confess where you’re out of alignment? What would return to secure attachment offer your day tomorrow?
-- Libby Tedder Hugus