I was raised Catholic, and while I no longer identify as such, there are some practices Catholics do that many Protestant denominations don't. One of those is the practice of confession.
Sure, I often found the practice of confessing to the priest rigid and intimidating. I usually lied, or talked about something insignificant to mask the things I knew I ought to confess. But at least it was something that we talked about. Confession was something important. I don't see a lot of emphasis on confession anywhere, really. Scripture talks about the importance of practicing confession, and bringing our sins into the light. But I rarely see it happening anywhere. We talk about "accountability partners" but those are generally reserved for people struggling with sexual sin. Most people going about their lives generally don't have accountability partners. I know I don't have one. So what then? I try and make a practice of confessing. Not every single little sin, because goodness knows that would be a lot of confessing. I'd spend all day confessing. I have too many wayward thoughts, too many sinful moments where my mind goes down a dark alley or my heart reveals exactly how polluted it is. But I try to confess things that linger. Things that, when I acknowledge that they are wrong and ask God to forgive me, don't go away. Like the spike of selfish jealousy I get when people run around asking others for help dancing and i'm passed by ("dancing is what I'M good at!"). Or even slightly bigger things, like when a certain godly man is starting to be very distracting and I can't seem to let it go. These are not the sort of sins you would get an accountability partner for, but I'd argue that they're just as important. Any sin that we allow to linger tends to gain power over us. And I've noticed that, the sooner I confess them, the sillier they sound when I say them out loud, and the more easily I can refute the lies I'm believing and turn back to God. Like I said, I don't have an accountability partner, which means I have a tendency to confess things without warning. I'll randomly announce to Anna, "I need to confess this. I get jealous sometimes when I see how much our friends fuss over you, and not me. It seems like they care more about you than me, and I know that's dumb, but I think I need to say it out loud so it doesn't make me bitter." And we'll talk about it and just the act of sharing helps me to let it go. She's gotten pretty good at rolling with my outbursts. I suppose the point of this post is that I think we ought to make a practice of confessing. It's easier to do when you have a mandated number of times you have to meet with the priest and confess your sins. It's admittedly harder in a Christian culture where, despite our praise of confession, we rarely practice it. But I challenge you (you 10 people who read my blog) to start a practice of confession with someone. It would be great if we had a culture where we all felt safe to confess our struggles without fear of condemnation. I've noticed an improvement in my own life. Rachel Fruit and Labor
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
November 2019
|