L
ord, my sins may not cause the most harm to the people of this Earth, but my pride and self-deceit about them can rival the worst sinners.
I made a pretty serious error in a project with a client recently, and didn't mention it, just hoping they wouldn't notice. Then, when they did notice it, I downplayed my knowledge of the error, playing mum about a cause I knew intimately. I dug myself deeper and deeper into a hole of "not-quite-lying", but obvious deception about the whole case, too embarrassed to come out and admit what I had done.
I don't always have a powerful sense of my own sinfulness, and this was a welcome reminder of my terrible faults and weakness. I had to remind myself throughout the ordeal not to try to "self-soothe" and brush off the whole thing, telling myself that it didn't matter. It does matter, I failed myself and my God in a very serious way, and I needed to reckon with it.
Fortunately, I was able to correct the mistake, at considerable time investment from myself, which is as it should be. I may not have made my confession to the client, but I did some measure of fruitful penance working overtime to make things right-ish, and my priest will be hearing about this one.