Liberation

Confession

“We have phrases for this movement of God in our lives--

we speak of getting something off our chest,

we talk about how good it was to vent,

we say after we voiced some truth or doubt that we

feel a thousand times lighter,

all of this language blurring the line between our

thoughts and emotions and bodies.”

Rob Bell (What We Talk About When We Talk About God)

Have you ever had something weighing on you, pressing you down? When you finally get an opportunity to speak about it in a safe environment, you spew words out like a geyser and can't stop talking. All the emotions, all the resentments, all the embarrassing secrets that have been stored up to the bursting point come rushing out in a torrent. A dam breaks, and all that is in us rushes through the breach.

And when it's over, we feel the weight of the world lifted off our shoulders. Confession is good for the soul. We humans are not good at keeping things pent up inside us—it makes us sick, mentally, physically and emotionally. In my world view, having a confessor is as essential as having food to eat. Purging all the “bad ju-ju” of thoughts and feelings, telling at least one other person how we truly feel, even when we don't like how we feel, is as essential to health as diet and exercise.

I'm not necessarily talking about confession in religious terms, though that works for some people. I'm talking about having a someone with whom you can be entirely honest—a friend, a counselor, a loved one. Confession is liberating, especially when we know our confidence will not be betrayed. When we are able to be clear and open, when we name our demons, they lose power over us. They are exposed. They can no longer operate in the dark—in our minds or in our bodies.

Keeping secrets, especially dark secrets, is destructive to the spirit. It hovers like a shadow over every light that's cast our way. We need one another to hold that light while we unburden ourselves. And we need to hold it for others, so they may unburden themselves. The movement of God is always in the direction of life.

                                                   In the Spirit,

                                                        Jane