Thursday, January 21, 2010

Confession, for me?

There is nothing like confession to resolve conflict or to break down barriers. Once we have cleared the air, so to speak, we can communicate with clarity.  Max Lucado puts in this way: Confession does for the soul what preparing the land does for the field....(gets it ready for the planting and growth)

When I was much, much, younger, I used to think the Catholic Church had it right - one day for confession and get it taken care of for the week... However, the closer I grew to God, and the more I understood that we are called to holiness, the more I knew that would never work. I couldn't keep track of my sins in one day, much less one week.

Then first, there is that issue of holiness - of measuring my value system against God's value system. I remember remonstrating a friend when I heard him say he had done something stupid when what he had done was sin against God and the other person. Calling it stupid somehow made it seem less....

And there is also the issue of what on earth confession means - in reference to sin and God, it means saying the same thing about our sin that God does.  As I think that through, it means also admitting that I have offended God's holiness, and that my failure here grieves him.  He loves me and wants only what is good for me, and sin sure isn't good for me.  It always ends up costing sooner or later.  And God grieves for what it will  cost me just as I have grieved over the cost of the sins of my children.

So, I fear we feel good about ourselves that we don't go to confession once a week like the Catholics do, but I fear also that we don't go to confession at all. And I wonder what that does to our relationship with God and with others.

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