Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread.

I'm Wyn Collier, and I wrote today's piece titled Cleansing Confession.

There's a man people hire as they're dying, paying him to show up at their funerals

and reveal secrets they never

shared while they were alive.

The man has interrupted eulogies.

He's asked stunned officiants to sit down when they started to object.

He once stood to explain how the man in the casket had won the lotto, but never told a soul,

and for decades pretended to be a successful businessman.

Multiple times the hired man has confessed infidelity to a widowed spouse.

One might question whether these actions were exploitative or enacted in good faith,

but what's obvious is people's hunger

to be absolved of past sins. Having someone else confess for us, especially after we're dead,

is a futile and risky way to deal with secrets. These stories, however, reveal a deep truth.

We have a need to confess, to unburden ourselves.

Confession cleanses us of those things that we've hidden and allowed to fester.

Confess your sins to each other, James 516 says,

and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Confession

releases us from burdens that bind us, freeing us to commune with God, praying with a heart

open to him and to our faith community. Confession enacts healing.

James invites us to live an open life.

Confessing to God and those closest to us

...