11/27/20 “GUILTY” FEELS SO GOOD?! — I hadn’t been a pastor for more than a few weeks when there was an emergency. The teenage son of a prominent member had gone off on a drinking binge with several of his friends, male and female. He and a few others had consumed so much alcohol that they nearly died.

Weeks later, out in the parking lot of the county seat just before their court case, he was bragging about his exploits and how he wasn’t the least bit worried about the judge inside. “What can he do to us—after all, we’re still minors! We just had a little harmless fun!” I heard him snort.

A few minutes later, in the court room, the judge “read them the riot act,” as the saying goes. He strongly suggested that each one plead guilty. He nearly insisted that any who had planned to be represented by a lawyer should dismiss him or her immediately. And to any one of them who plead not guilty, he promised to give them the harshest sentence he was allowed. One by one, each one entered a guilty plea. The judge meted out his sentence—lengthy community service and months of probation. He warned them not to appear before him again anytime soon.

Afterwards, back out in the parking lot, the young man from my congregation told me, “Pastor, I can’t tell you how GOOD it felt to ADMIT MY GUILT! I and everyone else knew that I was guilty. Now I can start over, get a fresh start and do better this time!” I told him, “Sounds like you learned an important lesson. Praise the Lord!”

1 John 1:9-10 (CSB) says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, ‘We have not sinned,’ we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” When it comes to our multitude of sins, of commission and omission, our best strategy and our only real hope is to confess them to Almighty God—agree with Him that we have failed to obey Him—and beg Him to forgive us. Then we can start over and get a fresh start. And God empowers us to do better!