Tiffanie Villasana

Center yourself on today’s reflection by lighting a candle and reciting this breath prayer:
Inhale – Remember me in your mercy, Lord
Exhale – and unite us by your cross.

James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 

Reflection:
We live in a seemingly flawless fantasy world—a world that seems to have little room for imperfection. Social media platforms tend to highlight the best part of lives, and ads constantly suggest our lives should look a certain way. Enough of this exposure can lead to society as a whole adorning our own masks of this perceived perfection. 

This tends to make confession so much harder for me. It’s not easy to talk about imperfections in such a picture-perfect world. There’s quite a bit of vulnerability in confession. Whether I’m confessing to God or to others, confession reveals my brokenness that I so often want to hide because it doesn’t seem to line up with the picture-perfect world around me.

Confession, though, allows us to present ourselves to God—our authentic selves, not the masked version of ourselves that society prefabricated, but the version that was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Confessing allows us to take off our masks and to just be real in a society that doesn’t always feel real. 

God doesn’t expect me to clean up before I show up. James 4:8 says “come near to God and he will come near to you.” All I need to do is show up—raw, authentically, and just as I am to confess. Then, God can do the cleanup. As we draw near and he draws near, I believe it is then easier to become more Christ-like instead of reaching back for our worldly masks. 

I don’t think many of us like to admit “I’m guilty.” Here’s to hoping we all can look at confession through a different lens. I love that confession in Christ allows us to be fully ourselves. We do not have to present the perfect version of ourselves to confess or to be forgiven. Christ already did the hard work for us on the cross. As a result of the cross, we can be released from any shame and guilt through confession. After all, no one is exempt from our need for confession—for all have sinned (Romans 3:23). 

Prayer:

Lord, though I don’t always feel worthy of your unconditional love and acceptance, I am thankful for it. Thank you for loving the real me and for accepting the non-Instagram-worthy version of me. Help me to feel comfortable in my own skin—free from the factious masks the world suggests I wear—and help me to draw near to you so you can lead me, guide me, and hold me nearer to you. Amen.