Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)
Growing up, I was very accustomed to a culture of concealment.
People showed what they wanted to show to keep up appearances. In church gatherings people had no problems doing the praises and hand waving and all that stuff. At school teachers were all sorted in their lives and experts in their field of specialty. It can be rather intimidating to be around people who have made it. Only too aware of my own inadequacies I became less likely to show who I really was because it might upset the nice little set-up.
Concealing things became not just something necessary to protect the shambles of an identity, it also became a power trip. Knowing something you didn’t know gave me an edge. It gave me an advantage. That just made me up and ‘appreciate’ the values of having secrets.
There was the sense in which keeping that information protected me and ensured no one would be any the wiser to what went on behind closed doors.
The things I hid behind those doors were at first my own insecurities and inadequacies. Soon there were added a few personal indiscretions and struggles. Eventually, to all intents and purposes there was the Christopher you saw in public and a very different Christopher in private.
This became particularly difficult for my wife to take. As I discovered the cost of marrying a woman who needs intimacy is that she will often search to get what she wants. When she does so, especially in the most innocuous fashion she can then come across that stuff I had hidden behind the door for so long. Intimacy is the sharing of ourselves and there are some parts that just are not pretty.
Yet marriage is an excellent mirror on the relationship God always desired to have with me. It’s not that God doesn’t know or God is trying to get a look in. It is that as long as I keep things hidden and concealed I’m fooling myself in trying to fool God that all is hunky dory and He is my all in all.
This is why walking in the light even as He is in the light means those hidden issues have got to come to light. It is even better if we choose to acknowledge that not only do we need to expose some things, we also need to renounce them. Take a stand to say that what is past is past – they will not hinder and interfere with what’s going on in the present. Those skeletons, those demons, those addictions and afflictions are not greater than the Great One who lives inside of me. Bringing them to the light of the love of Jesus gives them no choice – they simply have to go.
We confess – God cleanses. We are never fully real when we look to conceal.
I’m talking about total exposure every time you meet somebody. I am talking about intentionally making awkward relationships smoothed over. As we confess so we experience the burdens lifted. So we experience the light break through and show the right step to make next.
This is not just something to be done just between me and God. Sometimes we need to invite others and the church to witness the confession so we can rejoice together and support each other in living out what we’ve renounced. When the church is the environment in which these confessions can take place, so is the atmosphere for unity in place.
Putting it into practice offends most of our sensibilities but when the unity of the Body comes in, there is no room for unhelpful sentiment.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 