The Cover Up and The Crime
On a walk through my little town the other day a small detail in a sign caught my attention. It raised all kinds of questions in my mind.
How did this happen? That is the story I want to know. I figure there are a few ways it could have gone down.One, the guy in charge of ordering signs was binge watching "How I Met Your Mother" and when he was spelling "Marshal" he accidentally added the second "L". When the sign showed up in a crisp FedEx box he gasped with dismay when he recognized the mistake. Now the Fire Marshal was going to be furious..."I know what to do," he thought. No one will notice the mistake if I slap a sticker over it.Secondly, maybe the fire marshal submitted the request himself and forgot how to spell his own title. For months the sign sat out front with no one brave enough to point out his mistake. Until one day a small child taking a tour of the station, with no fear asks the marshal, "Why is your sign spelled wrong?" In only the way a child can. (My son is a case study in creating those kinds of moments) Humiliated, the marshal goes to order another sign only to realize the budget for signs has been shot. All they can afford is a small reflective sticker.I could probably come up with a dozen other stories for how the mistake was made and two dozen on how they decided to cover it up. Mistakes are often good stories. Cover-ups never fail to be.Imagine Watergate if Nixon would have just confessed at the first mention of improper recordings. What if Lance Armstrong would have acknowledged his steroid use the first time it came up? The mistakes were significant, it's the cover-up that brought them and so many others down.David was familiar with the problem of hidden sin and cover up. You can read all about his affair with Bathsheba and the elaborate cover up (including using the military to murder her husband) in 2 Samuel 11. Or if you would rather, check out the classic Veggie Tale "King George and the Ducky" for a fairly accurate synopsis.Sometime later, David wrote a song which got to the point.
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long....
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions tot he Lord," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Psalms 32:1-5 (emphasis mine)
It's always tempting to hide our mistakes when we feel shame. The idea that hiding it will make it go away is a tragic lie. There is a captivity only experienced by those who believe they are hiding something. Captive to the fear that someone will find out. Ignorant of the fact that God already does.Confession is the route to freedom. Confession unlocks the cage and sets us free. It doesn't mean things get easier. There are consequences for our actions. Broken relationships, opportunities lost, and more. The consequences for hidden sin are far worse, even if we think we have avoided them altogether.Today, if you have covered up an extra "L" in your life, peel off the sticker. Own the mistake. Confess your sins to the God of all grace.By His Grace, For His Glory,Shaun