By Aubrey Gill
“I know you! I know everything about you.” To some, this sounds comforting. For others it makes them want to run away as far as they can or at least find a quiet corner where they can blend into the wall and be forgotten about.
We all tease about this great divide between introverts vs. extroverts. But, in the context of close connection with fellow believers, sharing our sufferings, and confessing our sins, we all, even the most extroverted extrovert can become the most hardcore introvert. We all have a shell. For some, it is a home to clam up in and to others, it is just a tiny little box where all the unmentionable things are kept. No matter our personality there is a form of vulnerability felt at the idea of being known, 100%. We’re unsure of what happens when we confess the hurts suffered and the mistakes, past sin and present. Those are the things in the shells that we all want to keep everyone away from and in effect those things keep us away from everyone and the joy we could have in community with others.
Christ came to set us free from bondage and those things that we would like to hide away are the chains that bind us. Christ has indeed set us free! We are free from the bondage of sin and by the stripes Jesus suffered we are healed (Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24). This cannot be emphasized enough, yet we cower at being known by him and those who are his. Community can be a place of welcome. And, the Church is the one community where we can open those boxes because they are not what define us, Christ is. When we open up we may find others who have suffered the same and in that find comrades in arms to help us fight off those things that try to define us as anything other than a child of God. It can be so hard to believe, but confession of sin and suffering to brothers and sisters around us can be a safe place where we all know that we have all sinned and we have all suffered. Come as you are. When we confess what is in our hearts, Christ does a wonderful work of mending and cleansing (1John 1:9). As we say here, “may Christ meet us where we are but not leave us where we are”. Let us pray today that we have the courage to come together in community and in confession so that we may shed those shells and be transformed in the way our savior, Jesus Christ, has promised to us.
