Sins Will Find You Out

My house is situated within walking distance of three public schools. One summer while mowing the front lawn I spied a ball of blue paper about the size of an Easter egg under a shrub. The paper couldn’t have been there very long because it wasn’t weathered. I unrolled the paper and read a memo dated the same day. It was from a 2nd grade school teacher, written to little Johnny’s mom and grandmother. Paraphrased, the note said Johnny was misbehaving and not turning in his homework. Johnny’s mom and grandma were asked to call the office and schedule an appointment with the teacher. I could just picture this little guy walking home from school thinking, if I ditch the note, no one will know and I won’t get in trouble. I took the memo, along with an explanation of where it was discovered, and mailed it back to the teacher. A week later she sent me a note thanking me for taking time to help hold her student accountable. Sometimes we adults are just like Johnny when we try to dispose of our sins. We convenience ourselves that if we just throw sins into a dark corner no one will see them and we won’t have to openly repent. You’d think we’d learn that it’s less painful to confess our sins than it is to have them exposed.