Covered

October 22, 2019

“The truth will always out.” My daughter and I were having a conversation about confidentiality in counseling and how challenging it is for us to be completely open with one another. Everyone has skeletons in their closet; things we’ve done or that happened to us we hope no one will ever find out. Finding someone with whom we can share those secrets without fear is a formidable, but important task. In Judeo-Christian tradition, it’s called confession, and truthfully, it is good for the soul. 

The Bible says, “Love covers a multitude of sins.” It doesn’t say “ALL sins are covered,” but “a multitude of sins.” In the Hebrew tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant, the lid of which was called the Mercy Seat. There, the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial lamb each year to atone for the sins of the people. The word for atonement was a “covering.” God covered the sins of the people. Those sins however, must be confessed to be covered. Here is the important part: Those sins we continue to hide are fair game for the Enemy of our souls, who is not at all shy about exposing them and using them against us. 

Repentance and confession are inimical to our fallen condition. Most of us would rather die than admit our sins and shortcomings. And that is exactly what happens. When we hide and deny, something inside us begins to die; our integrity, our connection with our soul, and our ability to connect with one another. I regularly see the results of this in people who live isolated from others, unable to maintain significant relationships. At the extremes, they live in a fantasy world, incapable of recognizing their need to change behavior, prisoners to their unwillingness to repent and confess. 

I am thankful tonight for this conversation with my daughter. Sometimes it takes a conversation to clarify things we know intuitively, but haven’t expressed clearly. That the only sins covered by God are those confessed was made clear as we talked. And that the Enemy will use against us those not covered—ie, unconfessed—is a corollary we would do well to hear. Lives and reputations have been ruined because of this. They can be saved if we are simply honest with at least one other person we can trust.