Close the gap

“I will remain silent as long as you keep checking my phones without my permission”. That was the text message Drake received from Jessy, his wife.

Jessy had walked in on Drake while he was checking her phone. She immediately thought he had read the messages between her and Roy, a colleague at work. She snatched the phone from her husband, hissed and walked away. “We need to talk”, Drake calmly said. Jessy did not turn back nor respond to him. Instead, she sent him a text message.

Two days later, they were still playing hide-and-seek with Drake trying hard to communicate while Jessy just ignored him and remained silent. She was not angry with Drake anymore, but seriously worried about how Drake might interpret the messages between her and Roy. She had been careless with how she communicated with Roy, who had been seeking an extra-marital affair, despite knowing she was married. Now, she is overwhelmed with guilt as she tries hard not to face Drake.

But how long will she continue to ignore him?  What about the guilt, the fears and stress she’s going through?

When Drake arrived home from work the next day, she determined to close the communication gap between them. They ate dinner in silence and afterwards had a long discussion. Then Jessy finally asked Drake, “what was it you wanted us to talk about?”. Drake let out a deep sigh and said, “It’s about my Mum”. Jessy looked at him in utter disbelief. She thought he would confront her about the messages with Roy, but Drake had not even read those messages!

King David sinned against God by committing adultery with Bathsheba and then murdering her husband, Uriah, to cover up his sin. He initially refused to confess his sins thinking he had gotten away with it. Those days of unconfessed sins were tough and miserable. “When I kept silent, my bones grew old; through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer” (Psalms 32:3-4).

Our natural instinct when we sin is to hide (like Adam and Eve) or cover up and move on like nothing happened (like King David). But when we hold on to the guilt, shame, pain, and agony of unconfessed sin, we get farther away from God and deprive ourselves of the joy of forgiveness. Confession brings joy, forgiveness, healing, and freedom. But “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).