I confess!

I confess!  I was in kindergarten when I kissed my first boy. But I have to tell you he was the cutest little thing with red hair and lots of freckles! Since I’d grown up with only sisters I had no idea you weren’t supposed to kiss boys. I’m sure I never thought about the ramifications when my teacher and my parents found out either. But after all, I was only five!

Ah, confession. It’s good for the soul. I remember when my oldest son was sitting around the table with our family one day when he was about 28 years old and confessed to doing something in high school that absolutely floored me.

We had an old fire extinguisher that you could fill up and pressurize. One day he and his friend filled it up with water, pressurized it and went for a ride. They went to a well known hamburger joint in our town and ordered take-out. When they got to the take-out window they pulled up the fire extinguisher and let ’er rip, as he said. They completely blew all the food off the counter inside and the girl who took their order was soaked to the bone. Then they took off squealing their tires. Now, let me tell you, it was funny when he told me this, but it would have been his undoing if I’d known about it back then! I’m amazed he never got arrested!

Another confession came from my brother-in-law. When he got his driver’s license he did some wild things. One thing he did he never told anybody about until it was too late.

My father-in-law took impeccable care of his cars. This one was a brand new 1969 Chevrolet station wagon that we took to Florida pulling a pop-up camper. There were seven of us traveling in that station wagon and it got pretty crowded, but we had a great time. Once we got to Florida the car started acting up and all of a sudden it just quit! This is a brand-new car we’re talking about here.

We parked our little camper next to the repair garage and actually had to stay there for three days! We didn’t have money to rent another car to pull the camper so we were stuck. It was some sort of vacation, believe me! Not until the repair man told Dad that something big broke underneath the car, it would cost $1,500, and they fixed the car did my brother-in-law Mike confess.

Mike had taken the car into town the night before we left on vacation and ran over a PIG! Yes, you read correctly, a pig—a sow, to be exact, that had escaped from a local farm. Probably weighing in at 800 or 900 pounds! Wow, that would break just about anything! The consequences from that confession lasted, I believe, until Mike could pay off the debt he owed his father. It was a long, long trip home for Michael.

Confessing our sins should be nothing new to us if we’re believers. God is an avid listener and One who always forgives. This doesn’t give us a license to sin, but gives us a way out of our old nature’s sinful habits. It frees us to worship as we unload our burden of sin at His feet.

So got something to confess today? Maybe a wrong you did to your mate or something you have held against a friend or relative? Or maybe you need to confess to something done to you and you find that it’s difficult to give it up and live in peace. Forgiveness is a part of confession. Let Christ clean up your soul today. Confess to those sins and ask Jesus to take them from you. It says in His Word that he removes our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). And I confess, that’s an inconceivable distance!