Come Learn Rest Ministries

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:1-5 NIV)

The little girl playing “charades” with us walked aimlessly around the room with a bewildered look on her face. Then suddenly, with a guilty look in her eyes, she started impersonating a child getting caught with his or her hand in the cookie jar. Because of her persistence and excellent 9 year old acting abilities, we finally guessed confusion but later noticed the card read confession.

Confusion or confession? What could I learn from the misreading of the card and our game? As I prayerfully considered my own life, I thought about confusion and the need for confession, about Lent and forgiveness, about Psalm 32. Trying to cover sin with silence and deceit requires constant management of the confusion wrong choices create.  How draining!

However, Psalm 32 invites us to stop walking aimlessly around in confusion. Confession restores order because God is more than able to reorganize our lives with us, for us and inspire of us. Moreover, the Lord’s help and healing provide such hope it is no longer necessary to apologize for our confusion because in God’s eyes it is no longer noticeable.

Lent reminds us that we have a choice to make. Confusion or confession? With confession comes the blessing of forgiveness…freedom from confusion. Thanks be to God!