If you think sleeping in an un-air-conditioned college dorm room and hanging out with a bunch of Sophomore boys for a week sounds like a good time, we are kindred spirits. I’ve been leading a group of guys since they were in 5th grade, and the last two summers I’ve had the honor to go to MOVE with them. If you’ve ever been to a church camp of any kind, you know it’s a place where insane things happen. Things that don’t make sense in literally any other context. It’s also a place where people find a lot of peace and freedom when they’re willing to step outside of their comfort zone and meet God on the mountaintop for the week.
That’s what’s happened for my guys each of the last two summers. Specifically, they’ve learned one valuable lesson that has changed their lives in the same way it’s changed mine. They’ve learned to be vulnerable. Specifically, they’ve learned to confess sin.
There are one million reasons why confessing sin feels like a bad idea, but they all basically boil down to one core fear: What if they reject me? There is an immense amount of pressure—pressure we like to pretend only affects the young people in our community—to present yourself as someone who has it all together. Any crack in the façade is a potential vulnerability. It’s a reason for someone to think less of me. If you look at the deepest recesses of your heart, you might find that, like me, there is a core desire for other people to think you’re a good person. So talking about the areas where we struggle feels at odds with that desire.
There’s just one problem. You’re not really a good person. You know that. I’m not really a good person either. Or at least any goodness in me is the grace of God at work in my life and not my own nature. So I’m left with two options:
- I can bury the parts of me that aren’t good, make everybody think I have it all together, and be exhausted all the time from trying to keep up the act.
- I can just let people see the real me. I can let them love me for who I am.
The Word of God would have you choose Option 2. There’s a promise in James 5:16 that says this: “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” In other words, the path to being healed from sin is the path of vulnerability, confession, and prayer. Getting things out in the light can only really help us, according to James.
If you ask any of my Sophomore guys what the greatest value of MOVE was the past two summers, they’ll tell you it was feeling the freedom to talk about things they normally don’t talk about. They’ll tell you that after talking about things they normally try to keep buried deep, they feel freedom. They feel peace. They feel lighter.
Timothy Keller has a great quote about being known and loved: “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”
You don’t have to go to MOVE to be invited into that liberation. You’re invited right now. Talk to a spouse. Call a friend. Go to coffee with your small group. Do a brave thing and confess your sin. It will help you heal. I’ve watched it happen in the lives of a bunch of high school boys each of the last two summers, and I’ve watched it happen in my own life countless times.
I’ll leave you with one more encouragement from Paul, found in 2 Corinthians 12:9. If we all exist to help each other find completeness in Jesus, and not be complete in and of ourselves, this is how we do it: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Brad Warren
Brad is a part of our Christ’s Church family and serves as the Church Relations Manager at one of our Impact Partners, Christ In Youth. He also serves as a host in our student ministry, leading a D-group of high school boys.
