I wonder what stuff you’re carrying around that you’ve never owned up to.  Hey, all us of have some things in our past that we’re not proud of... that we wish we could undo.  Our problem is that owning up is tough.

We already found that difficult as kids.  You blamed the broken ornament you weren’t supposed to touch on your little kid brother.  Dad asked you why the paint was spilt in the garage and you convinced him the cat knocked it over – rather than accepting the blame yourself.

That kind of blame shifting already happened back in the Garden of Eden.  Adam was asked what happened.  He shifted the blame to Eve.  God then asked Eve.  She shifted the blame to the snake.  Of course the snake didn’t have a leg to stand on.  But neither did Adam and Eve... they were just passing the buck.  And we’ve been pretty good at doing that ever since.  Owning up is hard.

I recall getting busted in primary school for something I did.  The teacher asked me to own up.  I recall being very evasive... but eventually it all came out.  However, owning up was actually more painful than getting the cane afterwards.

Our society has made blame-shifting quite respectable but it has also created some major problems.  Let me give you some examples.

Many years ago a man in W.A. sued the government, some hotels and a company making poker machines.  This chronic gambler had gone broke due to his gambling debts.  His argument was that the government and the hotels should have warned him.  And the poker machine company should have had signs up that gambling is addictive.  This fellow was not prepared to accept the blame.  Well, some good did come out of that: there are now warnings on poker machines.

A more absurd incident took place years ago in Florida.  A man drank himself into a stupor, broke into a fenced, gated, and locked electrical substation.  He then climbed a transformer, and was blasted by 13,000 volts of electricity.  He survived, but sued the electricity company and six liquor stores which had sold him the alcohol he had consumed.

Our society encourages us to shift the blame.  So what do we do then with the stuff we carry around with us?

Israel’s King David also had some skeletons in his closet; stuff he wasn’t proud of.  Some of it very serious: murder and adultery.  Outwardly it didn’t seem to bother him.  He seemed a well-adjusted person.  But David tells us in Psalm 32 that inwardly it was a different story.  In the strongest terms he shows us how unconfessed guilt has a negative effect on our life.

David says:        When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer,

Not a happy situation at all!  David uses figurative language to tell us that his guilt affected him physically.  His bones wasted away... there was groaning all day long.  His vigour and vitality drained away like on a hot sultry summer’s day when we have no energy.  But guilt also affected David emotionally.  There was depression… an absence of joy... a deep unhappiness.  He says it felt like God’s hand pressing down on him.  Guilt was a barrier between himself and God.

A prisoner spent 30 of his 50 years in prison for armed robberies.  Recently he became a Christian after doing some Bible-study lessons in jail.  He phoned his lawyer, asking him to own up to the police for two unsolved armed robberies.  His lawyer told him he had rocks in his head and hung up on him.  He then phoned the local police who took a statement from him.  In due course he had his sentence extended by six-months.  But he told the prison chaplain that he felt great and for the first time was sleeping peacefully.

I don’t know what baggage you are carrying around that leaves you with guilt.  But I do know that you don’t need to carry that stuff.  The Lord Jesus Christ wants to relieve you of your guilt.  He died on the cross so that we could be forgiven.  And He encourages you to confess it and find the same relief David found in Psalm 32.  Think about it.  That could give you the kind of relief that would put a song on your lips.

John Westendorp