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Thursday, October 06, 2005
You Can't Handle The Truth
I don't know where it came from.
It was at the dinner table one night. I just blurted out that my friend Mike had literally found two tickets to the Alabama vs. Auburn football game coming up in a few days. We were going to go and use those tickets.
He didn't find any tickets. I have no idea why I said it, either.
My parents let it go during dinner. They didn't really respond much to it. I remember that seemed odd.
Anyway, before lights out, my dad told me to be thinking about what clothes I was going to wear to the game on Saturday. Might get cold.
I don't know that I slept much that night. I tossed and turned about all the things you tend to toss and turn about when you've told a lie. I thought of other lies to cover up my lie. I wondered what I would do that Saturday to make my parents think I went to the game. I wondered how I might be able to get someone to get a program so I could show my folks I'd been there. I figured I'd better talk to Mike at school to get the story straight. One little sentence had affected pretty much my entire existence.
Then, the next morning, my Mom said, "You know, I think I'll call Mike's mom and say 'thank you' for taking you to the game and ask if there's anything she needs us to do."
Good interrogator, my Mom. I panicked. I sang like a canary. Told her the whole story.
Discipline given out, no question. I had to take my consequences. But, my mind stopped racing. The truth was out (at a cost), but I was peaceful now. More joyful. Even though I had some consequences, I could be more joyful.
And that's what David's saying in Psalm 32:
"How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away, Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to Thee, and my iniquity I did not hide: 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin."
See, one of the biggest robbers of joy (the 2nd fruit of the Spirit) is our own self. We sin against God and it has all sorts of repurcussions. Guilt feelings. It physically affects our body. It stays on our minds all through the day. It saps our emotional and physical energy.
But once we're honest with ourselves and with God...check out the freedom that follows. We admit that God is God and we're not, and experience forgiveness.
Well, that leads to joy.
Sin leads to bondage.
So, for today, can you remember a time when you felt that freedom and joy after going through something like David went through? How did the sin affect you? How did the freedom feel once you got right with God?
Brent 5:31 AM
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