What if you could really clear your conscience?

Imagine the release you could have from every dirty, low-down thought, word or action you’ve committed. Someone emailed me an interesting story about an elderly woman who could not live with her regrets and conscience any longer. She purposed to hang herself. She prepared the materials and was about to fling herself off a ladder, when the doorbell rang. All her friends had passed away and she had no family. The doorbell never rang. But it rang and rang and rang. Untying the noose from around her neck, she gingerly stepped down from the ladder and went to the front door.

On the other side was an eight-year-old boy with a smile as large as the Grand Canyon. The woman asked what he wanted and he said, “I want to tell you about my Jesus”. She was taken aback – not quite sure how to respond. In her hesitation, he pressed into her hand a little pamphlet and asked her to read it. Collecting her thoughts, she closed the door on the little boy. And that could be the end of the story, but it wasn’t.

The following week a local church pastor was ending his sermon about the shed blood of Jesus Christ and what it means. He gave an invitation for anyone in the assembly to give a testimony about what Christ had done for them. Way at the back, the elderly single woman slowly stood to her feet. She recounted what I have already mentioned and added that when she closed the door on the little boy with the big smile, she read the little pamphlet. As she read, the eyes of her heart were opened to her true state and what God wanted to do for her, if she would but ask Him for His help. With no religious background, she had come to the church address stamped on the back of the pamphlet to say thank you for the hope her heart had finally found in the promises explained in the words she had read.

From the very beginning of the world’s history – the problem of a dirty conscience is as old as Adam and Eve.  As soon as they did what they had been told not to, their conscience was dirty. Whether you go to the Old Testament or to the thousands of worldwide indigenous people groups, conscience was and is an issue. None of us want to acknowledge our willful missteps. When we do step out of line, our natural tendency is to hide it and pretend it never happened. This is like one of life’s proverbs – we can run, but we can’t hide. Enviably, even if we are the only ones to know – whatever we’ve done or not done eats away at us until we do something irresponsible.

Here we are in the 21^st century – an age of science, Internet, organ transplants, instant messaging, cell phones and Ipods, and we all continue to struggle with conscience. We can cut ourselves, or give a million dollars to the United Way, or serve in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, or perform many forms of penance and the result will be the same. If we don’t deal with the pride, self-pity, bitterness, lust, envy, apathy, fear or other attitude that birthed our guilty conscience, unresolvement will breed toxic actions to us personally and probably to those who love us.

Do you have something that is bothering you – something eating away at the lining of your self-worth? In my Life Recovery Bible, utilizing the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, on page 1541 are these words; “…if we confess our sins to God, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.”  To confess means to agree with God that what He declares to be wrong really is wrong. Each time we do this, being truly repentant, God says He WILL receive it, erase it and remove our guilt.



Be Well.