Categories
Other Writings

A confession

Welcome to 2021


Can I confess something?

I spent 2020 doing a lot more thinking about writing this blog than actually writing and posting anything.

I felt less than good about it. My sincere apologies.


I could blame the blasted new WordPress block editor.

When you have only a few working brain cells left, like me…

When you are one of those peeps who read the instructions first, like me…

And the instructions are written assuming no one reads the instructions…

Learning the block editor is risky business. It might be the last thing you ever do.

On my gravestone: He almost learned the new block editor.


But there’s more to it, truth be told.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have new ideas to write about. There are plenty of those.

It wasn’t that I lost interest in blogging. I’m as motivated now as ever, maybe more so.

It felt like finishing a new post…well, somehow it felt like someone had set the bar higher while I wasn’t looking. I couldn’t jump over it as easily.

And I didn’t want to fail.

So I spent a lot of time just eyeing the bar, visualizing myself jumping over it.

I spent time cataloging all the times I had cleared the bar before, making those reruns more accessible.

I spent time thinking that another week has gone by and I haven’t contributed anything to my friends out there.

I spent time thinking how, if I just organized myself, I could do better.


You know what the real problem is?

My own pride.

My own need to think of myself as someone who always comes up with something clever…or beautiful…or (God help us) profound.

That’s the real problem.

I’ve come to realize I haven’t been willing to enter the blogosphere without my makeup on.

As if this blog were all about me. Which it isn’t.

(Confession over.)


No confession is worth its salt without some sort of corrective action; going forward you will see me endeavor to repent.

I hope you will stick with me, because it might not be pretty.

No, it most definitely will not be pretty.

Like this post right here.

My first of 2021.


Welcome to 2021.

Categories
Current Events

Here. No words.

I’m still breathing

(deep breaths, whenever possible)

Still thinking

(more thoughts than I can put into words)

Until I read a book

(The Cross and the Lynching Tree)

That arrests the flow of breath and thoughts

(my heart asserting it’s proper place)

Leaving only this thought in these words:

Lord, have mercy on me and my kind.

dw
Categories
Current Events love

Love included

The “truth” that makes another man seem cheap hides another truth that we should never forget, and which would make him remain always worthy of honor in our sight. To destroy truth with truth under the pretext of being sincere is a very insincere way of telling a lie.

— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sincerity

cropped-david-monje-2199131.jpg

If love is not in the truth I tell, then I’m not telling the whole truth.

Not telling the whole truth reveals the truth that I am not whole.

That I am not whole means I am part of the problem.

When Jesus says Repent, he asks me to own up to that.

Then he says, Follow me and I will make you whole, part of the solution, able to tell the whole truth, love included.

dw

Copyright © 2020, becomingflame.com

Categories
prayer Prayers

A prayer for truth telling

Holy God, who entered our world as the Word,
the Word of truth, of love, of light, and of life,

When we speak words of error, hatred, darkness and death
have mercy:

May those listening see our lies for what they are,

And may you awaken our conscience and grant us repentance;
may you change our very hearts to make them clean, wholly loving you and our neighbor, whoever that neighbor may be.

When we speak words of truth, love, light and life
have mercy:

May those listening take heart and have hope,

And may you grant us the joy and gladness you have always purposed for us,
to be your people with your Word living with us and in us.

Holy God, may your Word be spoken and cherished in all places and by all people.

Through your Son, Word of God, Jesus,
amen.

dw, 7Jul19

cropped-david-monje-2199131.jpg
As some of you know, from time to time I compose prayers. This one has been brewing in me for quite some time, but I have recently felt an urgency to finish and post it. I pray it may be one of those very small seeds that grows and in some mysterious way provides a place of rest for weary souls.

Grace and peace to you…

dw

p.s. A list of other prayers posted on this site:

Categories
prayer

Prayer for when we mess up

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:10-12, Ignatius Bible


I mess up.

All the time.

Each time is a temptation to beat myself up. I do this very well from much practice.

Over the last couple of years I’ve tried, instead, to pray this prayer or others like it; I find it better to invoke God’s help to change rather than to just try harder on my own.

King David messed up big time; I mean BIG time (read about it in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12). Psalm 51 records his prayer after being called out on it.

I need these words in my heart and on my tongue; maybe you do, too.

Grace and peace to you…

dw

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash