Lamb of God, you yourself came in all humility and dependence on your heavenly Father. You yourself chose the path of weakness, vulnerability, suffering, and submission. You yourself depended on nothing else-not degrees or titles or followers or even life itself-nothing but God's power in and through you.

Lord, we're so invested in our accomplishments and our reputations. We work so hard at trying to control life. We work so hard to make impression on others. But, you ask us to not be afraid to be unimpressive and vulnerable. You ask us to let go of our addictions to comfort and success, to popularity and self-confident answers. But, we don't want to embrace your death as our death, your dying as our dying.

Lord, you know how our motives are so mixed-how much we want our reputation to grow and our influences to spread. We are not pure-hearted, not free from ourselves, not convinced of our utter neediness before you. Forgive us, Lord!

Lord, peel away the layers of image and persona we've so carefully wrapped around ourselves to hide our brokenness and neediness. Lay us bare so that everyone can see the treasure that is your life in us. Show us how to embrace our suffering and the suffering of others. Help us tell our stories, to name our wounds, to find your healing touch. Open our hearts to the needs of everyone around us.

Lord, free me from myself! Free us from ourselves!

In the name of the one who died and rose again, Amen.