Confession

My mom was raised Catholic and one of the traditions of the Catholic church is to go to confession.  The priest gives you some task to do to make up for the sins that you confessed and you move on - never to do those sins again!

I grew up in several churches, but in one specifically where confession was encouraged as a part of daily walking with the Lord.  This wasn't because it was intended to make us better or less sinful.  Rather, I understood it to be more of a 'getting things off your chest' kind of thing.  Call me crazy, but confessing to things I have done makes me feel better!

I have gotten out of the habit of that because recent churches I have attended have not so much down-played the idea of confession, but just haven't pushed it.  They focus a lot more on getting people to have a relationship at all with God.  And to be honest, listing out the sins you've committed - even to God - is a hard thing to do because it makes them real.  But, then I read in Acts this morning:

"So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man." ~ Acts 24:16

Wow, Paul, why did you have to go and do that?  I was doing just fine, pretending like my sin wasn't that bad because I haven't murdered anyone, and then you go and say something like that.

I know he wasn't perfect, but Paul is definitely one of the Christians that I look up to.  And if he is saying that he tries to confess his sin and keep right relationship with God and man, then I think I want to follow suit.  Tough times ahead...