wellness blog by Shawn Maassel

My grandsons and I recently played ‘Hide & Seek’ together.  Grandma did not fit into the emptied cabinet as she thought she would, and stuck out as she pressed herself up to the counter where the refrigerator stuck out just a bit.  The bathroom mirror divulged my hidden figure behind the door.  Hidden things are hard to keep hidden for long. Luckily, that made the game fun for the boys.

Not so fun though, is other recent ‘hidden things’  being publicly revealed. My algorithm on social media keeps producing posts of  Christian leaders confessing improprieties or being caught in them.  I guess the subject intrigued me once enough to ‘click’.

 Our inherited sinful nature makes us want to hide, as Adam and Eve did when God sought them in the garden after they had first sinned.  Psalm 32: 3-4 says silence and attempts to cover our sins on our own leads to wasting away, groanings and pressure.  Maybe that’s why some have decided to publicly confess what they had hidden.

Or maybe there is true repentance now.  Returning to Him, being cleansed of all sin, and entrusting the future into His hands is scary, but truly the only way.  After wasting away, groaning, and the stress of living with unconfessed sin, peace in the center of God’s will looks pretty good.

Most of us live with hidden things – sins that are unconfessed (maybe unrealized but often those we’ve convinced ourselves are not really ‘that bad’).  We’re aware that these behaviors are not God-pleasing, but still like to keep them in our arsenal of ‘go-tos’ to manage life.

But all sin leads to ‘wasting away’ and the only remedy is Jesus.  Giving our sins to God and being cleansed renews us.  And God does not abandon us.  He had not changed.  And His plans for those He loves remain.  We can take refuge in Him. (Psalm 32:5-7).

During Lent, let’s approach God with sincere repentance, asking Him to reveal what we need to confess and trusting Jesus’ work on the cross which covers it all.

Shawn Maassel is a retired church worker, having served First Lutheran Church & Little Lambs Preschool (Huntingtown, MD) for 25 years.  She continues volunteering at FLC & LLPS, leads fitness classes for Body & Soul Fitness® and Bible studies with First Place 4 Health.  She enjoys time with her husband and traveling to visit their long-distance children and grandsons.  Follow her other blogs and posts at: inhiscourts.com and on YouTube.