Hide and Seek

This morning we began laying the groundwork for a look at the discipline of confession. If you couldn't make it today, here's what didn't happen...
We didn't hold hands and sing songs together. We didn't have a sharing circle or talk about our feelings. We were going to do some trust falls, but I was too tired.
Instead we looked at the account of Adam and Eve in the garden. It's a familiar story, so we won't look at a whole lot of detail in this space. The short version is this - Adam sinned. He disobeyed the instructions that God had placed before him. The very same day, rather than spend time with God he took Eve and hid from Him. At its heart, sin separates us from God. Nothing we can say or do will lessen this. It was true in the garden and it's true for us today. What's interesting about the account in Genesis 3 is God's response to Adam's sin. He calls out to him and asks where he is, why he is hiding and if he had disobeyed. The questions God asks are important because they establish a pattern of behavior. God questions Adam, but He isn't really seeking information. He wants Adam to confess. Not because He's a bully, but because the confession closes the distance that our sin puts between us. God can only forgive the sin that we confess.
We are left to wonder what would have happened if Adam had only come clean. The garden consisted of Adam, Eve, God and animals. Adam blamed Eve and God. Eve blamed animals. They probably stopped finger pointing only because they were out of things to point at. With that, their fate was sealed. Rather than confess and draw closer to God, they chose to create more distance between them. It's easy to see ourselves in that story. We need to understand something about God. His heart is to forgive. The entire Old Testament is God making a way to bridge the distance between us. It is Him pursuing his people, sometimes even against their will, just because of His great love. He sent his own son, his very best, to make sure those of us who are far from Him could be brought near.
That sets the stage for confession, which is accompanied by the idea of accountability we heard about last week. We had a very frank discussion about what prevents us from confessing our sins and struggles in our church family. I couldn't possibly do those moments justice here, so I won't attempt it. Instead I'll boil them down to two general themes - pride and fear. Pride because we're concerned about the opinions and thoughts of others at the expense of our closeness to God. Fear over what will happen when those we know finally know about us. The end result is a lack of the family/community that we need to survive.
We parted with a challenge. If I'm surrounded by people that all admit that they struggle with a variety of issues, I have to ask a question. Why is no one coming to me? What prevents people from seeking my help, confessing their struggles, admitting their fears, being open about the issues of their lives? This is a question that we all need to ask ourselves. If everyone needs help, why doesn't anybody want mine? This isn't intended to be me hitting everybody in the head with an idea so we all feel bad. This is intended to be a moment where we can stop and evaluate where we stand. This week, let's pray that God shows us if there are things preventing us from being the people He's called us to be.