Confession

For as long as I can remember, I have believed that men have an innate ability to understand the difference between right and wrong. I still believe this, but I also know that we can justify actions in our minds to quiet the guilt and give ourselves permission to commit acts that violate God, others, and ourselves. While we can certainly do this in our social circles, I believe it is easiest to justify wrong behaviors when we are isolated. This is because there is no one to check those behaviors, no one to hold a man accountable for them. There is great power in confession, therefore, because it brings to light thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors that others can help weight to be right or wrong.

If a man is willing to admit to himself that his behaviors have been harmful, he is given sudden access to a powerful tool, the discipline of confession. As one practices this discipline, I believe that a man's mindset begins to change, whether slowly or quickly. The more he makes others aware of his behaviors, the more he hears that what he is doing is wrong, and thus, the more he begins to see it as wrong himself. When he opens himself up to this admission and truthfulness, he is more likely to change. Long-entrenched behaviors begin to fall like dominoes until he finds himself becoming whole once more. This is the power of confession. A man who may be near-completely unwilling to change at the outset then begins to see the wisdom of others' words.

Like other disciplines, however, confession must be joined with the faith to act, in this case with repentance. A man must be willing to do the opposite of what he was doing in the past. When he does, however, what perhaps he thought at first to be wisdom is then exposed as foolishness. "There is a way that appears to be right," says the Biblical Proverbs, "but in the end it leads to death."