UCA News
Contribute

Truthfully, is honesty always the best policy?

In the wake of cyclist Lance Armstrong's highly public TV 'confessions,' a Christian pastor wonders if telling the truth really does set us free.
Truthfully, is honesty always the best policy?
Published: January 23, 2013 06:51 AM GMT
Updated: January 22, 2013 07:05 PM GMT

If Lance Armstrong anticipated a public outpouring of support and affection after his televised mea culpas, he misjudged both the media and his fan base. The critical and cynical responses reinforced what many of us believe to be true: The cost of confessing outweighs the benefits.

Despite last week’s shredding of the seven-time Tour de France winner, and regardless of our personal misgivings, Scripture unequivocally admonishes us to admit our failures to each other. However, in my 20 years of pastoring, folks rarely sprint to the confessional.

During the early days of our church, my husband and I kicked off a mini-retreat with a teaching on confession. Following the talk, we joined a prayer team around the perimeter of the space and invited folks to confess their sins. The first woman who approached me shrugged her shoulders apologetically as she said, “I don’t have anything to confess.” I looked at her quizzically and almost asked, “So, did you stop at the Catholic parish on the way over?” Since this was the first time our church broached the topic, I decided to cut her slack rather than assume she was lying.

Unlike my church friend, if I have been awake for more than 10 minutes, I can find something to confess. The words of 1 John 1:8 have always been very resonant for me; “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.”

The apostle Paul corroborates my experience with sin in his letter to the Romans: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). When he writes "all," I actually think he means all. We gorge when life calls for moderation. We work compulsively when we could rest. We silence those who disagree when we could draw them out. We curse when we should bless. God gets this, which is why He sent Jesus. By confessing our sins, we acknowledge that we are fallen and need what our Savior offers.

Much like Mr. Armstrong, we prefer to push off from this reality, choosing instead to fabricate a false self rather than reveal our struggles and failures. This is due, in part, to our culture—both secular and Christian—which has trained us to value the appearance of health and wholeness over and above the real deal.

However, we can’t assign all the blame to contemporary culture, since the impulse to hide pre-dates the 21st century by several millenniums. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, their first instinct was to camouflage themselves in the hope that He would not see them. Sound familiar? It should; we’ve been doing it ever since—and it rarely works any better for us than it did for them.

This impulse to hide after blowing it has its roots in shame—a prevailing feeling of badness that convinces us we won’t be loved or accepted if others actually see our reality. In our desire to buffer ourselves from shame, we lie, we posture, we win acclaim dishonestly or, like Armstrong, all of the above.

By regularly “confessing our sins one to another” (James 5:16), we can be free from these default behaviors. God instituted confession to break the power of shame and sin. When we sin—in thought, action or inaction—those shameful feelings are meant to get our attention and propel us back to God so that we might receive His forgiveness and grace, primarily through the “effective prayer” of the one hearing our confession.

Such intentional humiliation of the self is radically counterintuitive. We fear that once someone understands how weak, how undisciplined, how unspiritual we actually are, they will abandon or ridicule us. But in reality, I have found the opposite to be true.

Full Story: Does Telling the Truth Really Set Us Free? 

Source:Relevant Magazine

Help UCA News to be independent
Dear reader,
Lent is the season during which catechumens make their final preparations to be welcomed into the Church.
Each year during Lent, UCA News presents the stories of people who will join the Church in proclaiming that Jesus Christ is their Lord. The stories of how women and men who will be baptized came to believe in Christ are inspirations for all of us as we prepare to celebrate the Church's chief feast.
Help us with your donations to bring such stories of faith that make a difference in the Church and society.
A small contribution of US$5 will support us continue our mission…
William J. Grimm
Publisher
UCA News
Asian Bishops
Latest News
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia