So, lately (as in, since Ash Wednesday) my wife Catherine and I have been attending church on Sunday mornings. Before that we hadn’t gone to church for five or six years. Then, rather suddenly, we felt like going again. I have no idea why. I didn’t question it.
I was happy not going to church; I’m happy to be going again.
Here’s the church we’re now attending:
Pretty ridiculously adorable, right? It’s an Episcopal church. We’re Episcopalians. So … that’s a nice fit.
Anyway, last Sunday we did this thing at the church, where everybody wrote down on a piece of paper a resentment they’d like to be rid of. We each dropped our piece of paper into a wooden box, which was then drilled shut.
On Easter morning we’re going to build a fire, and burn that box. The idea is that our resentments will thusly be removed from us in the crucible of the glorious return of Jesus Christ.
Pretty cool bit of 3-D symbolism, right?
So at some point this Easter morning I’ll be standing around a fire as it consumes a bunch of people’s resentments. If you would like to add to that fire a resentment of yours, either leave your resentment in the comments section below, or send it to me privately via my Contact John page. I’ll transfer whatever you write onto a piece of notebook paper, and this Easter morning see that your resentment, right along with the rest of ours, rises up in smoke toward heaven.
[UPDATE: The pastor of our church said that on Easter morning he would be pleased to drill a slot into our church's sealed wooden box containing all the resentments, and before burning it add to them the ones occasioned by this post. I'll be sure to take pictures of the ceremony and within a day or two share them here on my blog.]
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To Natalie J. You knew what it meant, God knows what you need, it will be smoke and ashes.
I should’ve explained mine better.
I resent all those “Christians” who convinced me that God could not and would not love me until I magically became str8.
Cullen: because I want to–and have said I would–pray for these as they go up in flames, I have been reading them. (And what a heartbreaking experience that has been.) But if you want to send one in that I do not read, simply start your resentment saying you don’t want me to read it, and once I read that I won’t read any further. But I will still cut and paste it into the group I’ll be burning.
If it’s too late, writing this here will still be helpful in my process.
I resent my former husband and his wife for their abandonment of my son, which is doubly painful because it has also separated him from his young siblings. It hurts to see him trying to be strong and move forward with his life when I know how much he is suffering because my father abandoned me as well.
I resent that while my son is going through this, we are losing my Mom to Alzheimer’s. I guess I feel resentful of so much loss. There’s more, but too much to write here. Thank you John, for providing this opportunity for sharing and releasing. And thanks to your pastor as well.
I’ll include this, Kate. Thank you.
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