Scared of Confession...

What are we scared of when we hear the word confession?  What do we have to hide?  A lot.  Why do we have to hide it?  Because we're scared of what it means to be vulnerable, rejected, alienated, hated, flawed.  Why, then, if God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, would He ask us to do something that scares us to death -- to confess our sins to each other?

We aren't afraid to confess to Him, normally.  Most of our ingrained theology tells us already that He knows everything about us and that nothing is, or can be, hidden from Him.  So telling Him what He already knows takes some of the pressure off of us.  We know from Him, we are accepted.  He knows how to loves us with all our flaws and sins that the religious elite around us would scoff and count us out for. (Perhaps they are hiding greater sins?)

I wonder how many people I've counted out because of their sins?  I wonder how many sins that I've committed and and not counted that make theirs' pale in comparison?

What are we scared of?  Our reputations being ruined?  Rejection? Or how about growth?  Spiritual maturity?  When is the last time we confessed our sins to a friend?  When was the last time a friend confessed their sins to us?  How did we handle that?  With love?  A listening ear?  Gossip?

A wise man once said, and very recently I might add, "That if we can't confess our sins to the community, then the community isn't much like Christ." 

I'm convinced that God isn't much pleased with our hiding.  Think of Eden... they played a child's game with the Creator too, of hide-and-go-seek.  He's good at that game.  He has a way of finding us, exposing our inner wounds that will kill us, and then healing us.  We've been hiding since Eden first taught us that particular game.  He's been seeking us ever since as well.  Much of this hide-and-seek can be avoided, if we were more like Christ, less Pharisaical, and a lot more humble, transparent and trustworthy. 

Perfect love casts out our fear of His punishment.  Our love should be more like His then.  Others should be relieved of their fears of confessing because our love is like His.