WORD Good Friday Confession, Lawrence Moore
Pause before the prayer, allowing God’s Spirit to search your heart. Make your own confession. Pause after the prayer to experience the reality of God’s forgiveness.
I want to keep my hands smooth,
my skin unbroken,
my feet unscarred.
I don’t want the imprint of the cross on my shoulder.
Let someone else carry it for me – it is too heavy.
I need to keep what ‘self’ I have;
there isn’t enough to give any away.
If I have to die,
I want it to be some worthy cause.
If I have to give my life,
I want to be remembered as a hero –
not some broken failure
to be laughed at and jeered;
not some sub-human piece of human refuse.
I don’t ‘do’ that sort of love.
I want it returned with interest,
not with scepticism,
ridicule,
hostility
or indifference.
You’re calling the wrong person, Jesus.
You need saints and martyrs to march with you –
zealots and cross-bearers.
I’d only let you down.
Can you cope with my weaknesses?
Forgive my failures?
Transform my timidity?
Will you?
Because I want to follow.
At least, for today I do.
Teach me how.
