coming clean

Some of the most amazing and agonizing moments in this life come when we bring into full awareness (our own awareness and the awareness of others) some part of our own brokenness - a wound we have caused, an egregious error in judgment, a "trespass" we have willfully committed, a sin. We would rather such things remain under the rugs of our attention, or at least tucked away enough so that they appear to be of relatively no import or consequence.

Sometimes, it is someone else or some unexpected moment that pulls these inner shadows out into the light - very much against our will. We can be thankful for such truth-telling people and experiences that help us expose things we would rather keep hidden, because in the end they are instruments of our healing and transformation.

To have our broken places exposed, our sins revealed, is to be given an opportunity to become more fully human, which can also be described as growing more completely in the image of God that we each bear. This is because such honest, humble exposure invites us to let go of the falsehoods we carry and use to shore up our self-involved ways, and then yield even further to the truth of who we are as beloved children of God.

"Coming clean," is a term often used for this path of confession, honesty and reconciliation. It is a meaningful term because it describes how this path involves a cleansing and uncovering of what is, underneath it all, most true and real and blessed.