Wednesday, October 19, 2005
BROKENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY - 2
In connection with the sermon series, someone sent me these two quotes.
"Early in life I learned a basic truth that I have spent most of my adult years trying to understand more fully. This twofold truth says that keeping threatening personal information concealed from others can be damaging to your health and that confiding these secrets to people who care about you can have a healing effect."
"Based on my research, my clinical experiences, and my personal life, I have come to the simple conclusion that we all need to have at least one significant other we can confide all our troubling thoughts and feelings to. I also believe that we need to disclose all these distressing thoughts to at least this one confidant. If we don't, our self-concealing behavior tends to influence our attitudes toward ourselves, and we conclude tht there is some part of ourselves that is in fact unlovable, or else we would reveal it. The only way out of this vicious cycle is through disclosure to a caring and empathic confidant."
The goal and intent of the biblical principle of confession is not punishment, but healing! The application of the advice above also shows the importance of the "priesthood of all believers" - that is, we are priests to one another.
"Early in life I learned a basic truth that I have spent most of my adult years trying to understand more fully. This twofold truth says that keeping threatening personal information concealed from others can be damaging to your health and that confiding these secrets to people who care about you can have a healing effect."
"Based on my research, my clinical experiences, and my personal life, I have come to the simple conclusion that we all need to have at least one significant other we can confide all our troubling thoughts and feelings to. I also believe that we need to disclose all these distressing thoughts to at least this one confidant. If we don't, our self-concealing behavior tends to influence our attitudes toward ourselves, and we conclude tht there is some part of ourselves that is in fact unlovable, or else we would reveal it. The only way out of this vicious cycle is through disclosure to a caring and empathic confidant."
The goal and intent of the biblical principle of confession is not punishment, but healing! The application of the advice above also shows the importance of the "priesthood of all believers" - that is, we are priests to one another.
