Are you really free?

Years ago I made a mistake at work. I made a wrong calculation for a project and soon it would come out. To avoid embarrassment I tried to hide it and not admit the mistake. It was keeping me awake at night. During a speech, someone said: “The truth will set you free.” I never heard that before. But it felt like someone hit me in the stomach.

Have you heard of this before? It is a strong message and hard to live by. If you tell the truth will it set you free. Really?

This saying comes from Jesus.

He says that we are all slaves of sin and don’t want to admit that we have done things wrong. We try to hide things from others and from God. We are ashamed.

I know from my own experience that sometimes it is hard to tell the truth, especially about your own life. I have been struggling with this. To share mistakes with my wife, my boss, and my children. I found that it was controlling me. I was thinking about what I had done wrong all the time. Until I released my mistakes by admitting them to people.

I admitted my mistake at work and I had to work hard to solve the issue. But I was free. It gave me so much energy.

Jesus’ message is that sin holds us captive. It puts us in prison. Jesus asks you to admit your sins to him. He was without sin and he will forgive you. That is a promise. Forget the rest of this story (which might be complicated). Jesus’ message is: Share with me what keeps you in prison and I will set you free. No longer enslaved by the past but free for the future.