by Mark Browning

Created on: January 04, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

Harold Bloom, the literary scholar, says that most writers never go anywhere without meeting Shakespeare on his way back from already going there. He applies that, notably, to Sigmund Freud. Everything that Freud thought he discovered, Bloom argues, Shakespeare had already noticed.
How much more true is this about the God who created the universe. Psychology tells us that it is bad to keep things bottled up. It's good see ourselves as we actually are, to be realistic. What an amazing discovery. I think it was somebody really recent-like Jesus-who came up with that.

Every couple of years, I get the privilege of writing a self-assessment as a part of my job evaluation. Of course when I write that, I don't mention any personal copies I might have made or the day that I skipped a committee meeting without a good reason. I paint myself as a basically ideal employee. Isn't that human nature, though? We like to see ourselves as basically good. I've never killed anybody, so I'm pretty good. I recycle and don't litter.
Confession forces me to face myself as I truly am. On the whole I'm a pretty respectable guy. There are no warrants outstanding for me and the IRS could look at my files pretty closely without me sweating, but I am no angel. Even though I don't have a string of felonies to my name, I would sure hate to have my many sins exposed.
A couple of years back, in my journal, I wrote out a list of my sins. They were nauseating. Yes, they spanned a couple of decades, but I had plenty of really dreadful stuff. I've done ugly, hurtful, unpleasant things. I'm not a pretty creature really.
So doesn't confession just mess up my self esteem and ruin me with negative vibes? No. Confession is a dose of reality. Confession exposes me as a creature that is wicked in its heart. It exposes me as a white-washed tomb full of dead men's bones. It exposes me as a being desperately in need of saving.
I've been a follower of Jesus Christ for more than twenty years. At times, like many Christians, I can start to take seriously my veneer of respectability. Confession assists me as I remember the nature that controlled me before Christ and that is still rattling around within me in part. I'm not who I ought to be, but by the grace of God, I'm not who I used to be. Confession helps me never to forget these truths.

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