Monday Morning Confessional

I confess that I’m sad that the conservatives voted out nearly all of the moderate voices in Kansas politics last week. I confess that I think checks and balances is the genius of the American political system, and sadly it will not be something Kansans can rely on for the foreseeable future. I confess that I do not think this will be good for our state, especially for those who are the most vulnerable.

I confess that my kids are going back to school this week and I don’t want them to go. I confess that we’ve had an amazing summer together. I confess that I love to be able to pop in and see them during the day, or eat lunch with them when I have no appointments. I confess that I love being able to keep them up late so we can do things together. I confess that I constantly wonder if I’m doing the right things as a parent and worry that I’m failing them.

I confess that I’m a 3 on the Enneagram, which is often called the achiever. This means that my basic fear is that I’m worthless, and my strongest desire is to feel valuable. Threes spend all of our time trying to be successful and to accomplish things that will bring us admiration, attention, and success. I confess that the characteristic sins of the 3-type are pretty awful. Most threes would rather cheat than lose, and rather lie than feel worthless in front of others. I confess (on behalf of threes), we can’t help ourselves. We are sorry that we are always talking about ourselves and trying to get you to tell us that we are doing well. We are sorry that we are not self-aware enough to show you the full picture of our lives. We don’t like feeling phoney and we (at least some of us), are really trying to learn how to be authentic, secure, humble and to spend less time talking about our accomplishments.

I confess that when I was a kid, I would sneak back to board games that were paused for a few hours and add $500 dollar bills to my bank roll in Monopoly, or add armies to my reserves in Risk (see Enneagram type 3).

I confess that I have not been reading enough. I hardly read anything during my vacation and spent the first week back catching up on administrative stuff. That means it’s been 4 weeks since I have spend any significant amount of time reading outside of sermon prep. I confess that this is shameful for someone who writes a theology blog.

I confess that my community group at church has been on hiatus for the summer and I really, really miss it. I confess that Kristin and I have spent the summer trying to plan ways to make it a better group & we are excited to jump in to the fall.

I confess that I will miss the summer Olympic games, and that I have an irresistible urge to visit the UK again.

I confess that I’m not at all surprised by Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan for veep. I confess that I’m planning to dig out my posts from a few months back concerning Ryan’s budget & the attention he garnered. My thought back then was that he was only doing it because he wanted a VP slot in the ticket. I confess that I no longer think this is true.

I confess that I believe Citizen’s United will have a deeper impact on the coming presidential and congressional elections that any other single factor. Citizen’s United is insane.

I made my confession – now you can make yours!