I keep broken stuff. I am not talking about stuff that can be fixed, I am talking about stuff that is done, over, dead and never to be revived again and for some reason, I keep it. I not only keep it, I justify why I should not part with it and see how long I can go without having to deal with it.
Need some examples?
- Exhibit A: Last spring (about April or so) the refrigerator we had in our garage died. The engine burned up so the thought of trying to revive it is not possible. However, there it sits, in the same space doing absolutely nothing. How do I justify this? I use it as a shelf and a mighty good shelf it is, so there it sits, broken and useless and taking up space but I do not throw it out.
- Exhibit B: A friend of mine once gave me his 1983 Buick. What a ride! He was leaving for the mission field and no longer had use for it, so he gave it to me. I drive that thing until there was no life left and then it sat, and sat and sat in my driveway for a full year. It was ugly, took up space and left a great oil smudge on my driveway after it was finally towed away, but for some reason I refused to part with it.
As I had this self realization today about this bad habit I could not help but think this is how we often treat sin. We leave it there, unattended and refuse to part with it because we somehow manage to come to some good reason as to why it is there and why we cannot part with it. Makes me wonder if this is why James encouraged us to "confess our sins to one another." By having this open and authentic relationship with each other, it would be hard to justify the existence of something that not only served no use, but was doing us harm. We would be forced to deal with the issue and the brokenness of our soul.
Imagine that, confessing to one another, being authentic and feeling the freedom to work through these issues in community without being judged, condemned or cast aside. Hmmmmm, kind of sounds like what church should be!
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