Oh I did this. I did this. I did this. I did this!
I wish I could joke about this topic and say, “Ha, those people that confess sins to other people that don’t even know they’ve sinned against them are ridiculous!” But today, those people are named “me.”
A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled “Who are you jealous of?” In the post I shared how a friend encouraged me to celebrate my rivals. So I did that. I wrote about four people I often get jealous of and then attempted to celebrate them by writing about them on Stuff Christians Like. But in my attempt to do that, I think I might have perpetuated the core idea that this post is about. I think I might have become one of those people that comes up to you and says, “I want to confess some sin in my heart that I’ve been harboring against you.”
Sometimes in situations like this, the person is trying to honestly apologize but sometimes it’s just a weird, confusing interaction that leaves both parties feeling baffled. And I think I might have done this. The reason I say that is when I emailed the people on my “jealous list” and asked them if there was anywhere special they would like me to link because I was giving them a big shout out, one of them wrote back, “That’s kind of you … I think.”
Does that mean I was guilty of doing what this post is about? Was my heart not in the right place? I’m not sure, but I can take some small comfort in knowing that I didn’t execute the worst possible case of this phenomenon, which is when a guy confesses to a girl that he has been lusting after her in his heart.
A reader named Jeff reminded me of this the other day in the comments section on SCL and he wrote it better than I could. Here is how he describes what happens:
Guy: I have a confession to make, oh female best friend of mine.
Girl: What is it?
Guy: I have sinned against you.
Girl: Really? I never even noticed.
Guy: No, really I did. And I want to get right with you and God about it.
Girl: But you’re already right with me.
Guy: No, no, I’m not. You see, I have lusted in my heart for you.
Girl: uhhmm… ewww?
Guy: Really, I lusted deeply, heavily, and thouroughly. In my heart. For you.
Girl: Oh. That’s ducky.
Guy: I’m so glad that we’ve cleared the air. Aren’t we so much closer now that we’ve cleared the air?
Has someone ever made an awkward, possibly unnecessary confession to you? (Sometimes they are heartfelt and actually help heal a wound, but sometimes they are straight silly.)
Have you ever done that?
Has this ever happened to you?
