Resources for a Confessing Heart
Nothing is nearer to the ears of God than a confessing heart and a life lived by faith.
The words from Augustine’s Confessions still ring with relevance for pretty much any moment. I’ve been coming back to this line for a few years now because it cuts so quickly to the point. Are we being honest with God about where we are? That’s what a confessing heart does. It’s a heart that is aware, and isn’t afraid to say so (unlike our original parents).
No fig leaves. No hiding. No pretending that things are simpler than they are when they’re not, or that we don’t really feel what we feel because we know we shouldn’t feel it.
It’s hard to have an active prayer life if we think we must always dress up for God. You don’t.
But honesty isn’t always easy, especially when we don’t have the words. Sometimes we just don’t know what to say.
And this is where categories can be helpful.
Helpful Categories
For example, there are hundreds of emotions, but some say they can be distilled down to eight. Why eight instead of seven or five or ten? — I don’t know. But counselor and author Chip Dodd makes a good case for eight and what we do with them. Chip considers these eight emotions to be like the primary colors, and for what it’s worth, I’ve found this helpful. We use this when we talk to the kids about their day — hurt, loneliness, sadness, anger, fear, shame, guilt, gladness. They’re like bumper rails for articulating where we’re at, like training wheels for developing a confessing heart — which I need as much as the kids.
And I say all this to set up a new tool I’ve learned for the same sort of thing.
Recently I heard a teaching on the Book of Psalms and the range of emotions we find there. Sometimes the psalmists are on top of the mountain with their praise, and other times they’re in the lowest of valleys. Christians have been helped by the Psalms for centuries because of how it puts words to our soul — praise, petition, lament, thanksgiving, wisdom, and so on — and often we can see these movements within a single psalm.
Thriving, Surviving, Reviving
One Old Testament scholar has summarized these movements in three large categories: orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. Another author has called these movements thriving, surviving, and reviving. He argues that the psalms move in and out of those three diagnostics.
So how are you doing?
Well, it’s not always easy to say, remember. But what if we use these bumper rails? How is my soul? Thriving? Surviving? Reviving? (The same could be asked of your marriage and your work and your parenting — pretty much any angle of your life).
Are you thriving right now? Or are you surviving — just trying to hang on? Or are you reviving — with the light peeking through?
And you should know, it doesn’t so much matter where you are, but that you know where you are, and that you can tell God. These categories are another resource for a confessing heart, for a life lived by faith. And God is with us at every point.
The thriving is by his grace alone, of course! And when we’re surviving, he’s there, holding onto us in his faithfulness, however long it takes. And then when we turn the corner, he’s there too. He is there the whole time, and his love never wavers. Never. That’s why we can be honest.
“With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.”
