The Hiding Christian

It was time to go home. I started to “round up the doggies” so to speak. It it one of life’s constant challenges, herding my children out the door gracefully.  This particular evening it was time to leave my mother in laws house. Zoe and Ezra didn’t want to leave, so they hid behind the vertical blinds in the living room. While we were chuckling and taking pictures of them, I mused to myself.  How interesting it is to see the thought process of a child.  It is very simple, “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me. “

I have been rolling this chant in my head for a week.  IF I CAN’T SEE YOU, YOU CAN’T SEE ME.

 This phrase, as an adult, takes on a different meaning. The phrase quickly became “If I can’t see God, then He can’t see me”   Hiding is not a new struggle for me.  I very often find myself hiding small things.  I sugar coat my responses to questions,  I leave out parts of a story to keep people from thinking less of me, or I don’t correct an assumption that makes me look better.  Even as I write these small confessions, I know there are larger ones that I won’t write.  Because I am hiding them.  How FRUSTRATING!

It’s so futile for me to try to hide my sins from God.  I look just as silly as my kids trying to hide behind the blinds.  I could plainly see them!  Just like God can plainly see my sins.  My sins have been exposed to Jesus.  It’s as if there is a billboard outside my house.  It’s as if there is a screen that flashes every thought that I have, so each and every person that drives past my house can see all the ugly things I have thought about this morning.  Jesus knows ALL of those things.  He can see all of them, EVEN IF I HIDE.

Here’s the trap that I think, as Christians, we get ourselves into:

We KNOW the right things to do, yet we sin anyway.  And we know that  the Bible says; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  What I think happens is that we go from point A to point C without the middle part about confessing.  I think we very often forget the “confess” part.  I have NEVER gone up in church and confessed a sin.  Have you?  (I know there are fellow Christian women reading this).  Last Sunday in church, the preacher said (like always)  “If you need the prayers of the congregation, or to be baptized…” But no one goes forward.  We are a congregation of hiding Christians. We must not have anything to confess, and be perfect.  At least that is what a non believer might think.  Or a visitor.  And how silly we must look to God.  I bet we look just like my kids hiding in the blinds.

It’s a trial that a lot of Christians face today.  I think we get in the routine of going to church and keeping up the facade of the perfect Christian life.  Almost as if that is what being a Christian is all about.  How well you can hide your sin.  I am so weary of trying to hide my sins.

I challenge you to really look at your life, and if you are a person that sits in bible class and has said the cliche phrase “I sin everyday”, if you are that person, then the next step is to confess and then feel the freedom of true forgiveness.  No more hiding.  Because really, God can see you.

And as for the Christians that are hearing the confession of a person that has been hiding, remember that LOVE is the correct response.