The problem is what to do with it.
When Daniel was a young boy with a BB gun and a desire to learn to stalk game and hunt, he had an experience he has never forgotten.
We lived in a multi-story parsonage in Kentucky at the time and enjoyed having a walk in basement. Our house was on a big lot, and the boys could roam around on it having adventures.
One day I was in the basement doing laundry, and I noticed a strange smell. Not seeing anything amiss, I went on about my daily business. The next day, the smell was definitely there and decidedly worse.
I started to track the offending odor down. There, behind the yard rakes, shovels, and tools, I found it.
A decomposing red bird.
Rewind.
Daniel was out with his BB gun and saw a fat, beautiful red bird. He said, “I wanted to track something down, I wanted to keep it, I wanted to be a hunter and get it. It was a challenge!”
Not thinking he would be able to hit his target, he none the less obeyed the call of the hunt and aimed at the beautiful bird.
He hit it. It fell.
Daniel went over to the bird and told me later, “I saw it suffering. Then it took a last breath and died. It wasn’t beautiful anymore, and I was so sad that I had killed it.”
“Why did I do it?” he said he wondered. The challenge? It had been alive—-a small life truly, but something with the miracle of life in it.
“I was ashamed, Mama, and I hid it in the basement so no one would know,” he confessed.
Those words: “I was ashamed” have echoed through time from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had sinned disobeying God, and they were ashamed—-and hid from God (Genesis 3:7-11).
What do you think of doing first when you have done something wrong; you have sinned?
The human tendency is to hide the sin, hide the result, and sweep it all under the carpet.
Hidden sin will continue to fester, rot, and spread decomposition in your spiritual life.
David tried to hide his sin with Bathsheba and kept getting deeper and deeper in sin. (2 Samuel 11). He tried to hide the sin and the results of the sin with more sin.
Proverbs 28:13 states: “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
I John 1:9 assures us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Satan wants us to hang onto our shame and sin and let it debilitate us, stymie our spiritual growth, and stunt our usefulness in God’s kingdom. Don’t do it.
Confess, repent, and let the sparkling forgiveness of our God flow through you making you clean and whole again.
