Resolved: Three Confessions

I made a 2013 New Year’s Resolution. Every day, I am going to make 3 confessions. They aren’t all confessions of sin, but they are all confessions of truth. I am following Jesus’ words: “the truth shall set you free.”

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So every morning, I will make these 3 confessions of truth:

1.    I Will Remember My Name.
2.    I Will Confess My Attitude.
3.    I Will Name The Day.

I want to be free. But I see that I am not. I’ve entangled myself in all sorts of half-truths and lies. I don’t say what I mean; I don’t mean what I say. I make commitments that I am not gifted to do. I respond to gain approval. I keep quiet to avoid rejection. I don’t admit when I’m unhealthy. I don’t rejoice when life surges through me. I am entangled; vines of self-inflicted lies wrap around my feet. I want to be free.

So every morning, I will cut at the vines and say the truth – 3 of them.

I Will Remember My Name.

I’m 56. I’ve learned a thing or two about who I am. So every morning I will recall my name. I will pray it. I will say it out loud. Some mornings this will take the form of naming my gift(s); I am Writer. Some mornings it will take the form of naming a role I have chosen: I am Husband to Jean. And sometimes it will take the form of calling myself the secret name known only to God and myself; I am ___________.

This is the confession that God has made me. And if He made me – then He loves me. I am trying to admit that I have a place in the world – given to me by God. I have been invited to the adventure. I have a role and a place – how do I know? Because I have been named.

I Will Confess My Attitude

Every morning I wake up with an attitude. Sometimes grumpy, ungrateful and complaining. Sometimes open and kind. But I rarely confess it. I rarely call it out. When I don’t call it out – I empower the darkness on the one hand and quench the Spirit on the other.

This is the confession of the gift of responsibility. When I wake each day I must own where I am and what I am. If I deny the darkness swirling in me (resentment, unforgiveness, greed) then I will drive it underground to breed. If I deny the light dawning in me (wonder, happiness, excitement) then I will starve them. Sin grows in the dark, goodness grows in the light. Naming my attitude brings light into my heart.

I Will Name the Day

This confession admits the gift of freedom: I choose the direction that I will take my Name and my Attitude. It isn’t merely that I ‘have’ to choose, though this is true. Rather, I ‘get’ to choose.

I often operate as a victim – believing that I am controlled by external forces. And it is true that these forces affect my life (choices of others, culture, biological limits). But the larger truth is that I am King over the larger realm – the internal realm where God lives in me. Genetics may decide the shape and size of my nose, but I decide where to point it.    Every morning, I am granted the privilege of deciding where I will point my name (who I am) and my attitude (my experience). This is an awesome and dizzying freedom.

So every morning, I will name my day. Here are a few examples of names I used so far; Offering, Work Day, Day to Notice Light, Trapped Feeling, Willing Day…etc. If you were to do it – you would name yours differently – perhaps poetically, perhaps practically. But either way – naming the day exercises freedom. And by exercising freedom, perhaps it will grow strong in me.

Roger Edwards joined The Barnabas Center in 1991. In addition to counseling individuals and couples, Roger teaches and leads discussion groups about applying the Bible to everyday life.  He is a licensed professional counselor, holds a master’s degree in biblical counseling from Grace Theological Seminary in Indiana and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.  He is married to Jean, and they have seven children.