Spring Cleaning Prayer of Confession

Here’s a prayer for the corners of our lives
messy with yesterday’s business.
There’s the guilt about what was thrown in the garbage,
the regret about spending too much on extra things,
the time that was frittered away agonizing about details,
the energy wasted on trying to meet someone else’s standards.
Our memories are cobwebbed over with regret
of how it could have been different:
it could have been more responsible, more selfless,
more organized, more healthy, more something.
Even now, looking forward, there’s the sinking feeling
that bulldozers will not be able to clean up the mess we’ll make.

We need you, God, to be like a woman cleaning in May,
opening windows, pulling down dusty drapes,
chairs and rugs dragged out onto the lawn.
Every surface of our lives open and revealed
scoured by soap and spring winds.
The Spirit at work,
hope and new directions moved in like furniture.
Create in us clean corners;
ordered, uncluttered, functional.
Minds clarified, set to rights,
filled with the freshness of new beginnings.