“Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, 

so that you may be healed.”–James 5:16

Late in my junior year of college, a group of friends and I were planning our strategy for dorm assignments.  Seniors in those days had first dibs in the room lottery.  It wasn’t unusual for juniors in the spring to go knocking on the door of seniors to gauge the best rooms to request for the next year. My group talked it over and had determined which floor and dorm would be our first choice (photo of our choice is shown above). We had also decided to seek that space as a block. All six of us who had been on the same floor as freshmen and thus thought it would be fun and fitting to conclude our college years living near each other again.

At the meeting to finalize our strategy, a friend named Dick, announced that he wanted to add two other guys to our bid team. One of those was a guy named Tim. I didn’t know Tim well at all.  Looking back, I’m not sure we had had a five-minute conversation in our three years at college, but for some reason I had concluded that I didn’t like Tim and told Dick. I added that I didn’t want Tim living on our floor and wouldn’t agree to his being part of our lottery request.

Dick bore in. He told me what a great guy Tim was and how I didn’t really know him.  He accused me of being narrow-minded and out-of touch, but I still didn’t budge. Thus, he ended his argument by adding “Besides, your attitude isn’t very Christian!”  That got me hot.  I wasn’t about to let this classmate challenge my faith and told him so. I walked out of the room and may have told the group to leave me out of the request.  After cooling down, though, I knew Dick was right and went along with the plan.  Tim and his roommate ended up on our floor that following year, and while we never became great friends, it turned out that he truly was a nice guy.  And Dick?  Wouldn’t you know that after college he became a Presbyterian minister, too!  

I thought of that moment in recalling what the brother of Jesus wrote “confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” James could have been speaking only of our need to be reconciled to God yet I suspect he also was naming the need for people to come together. He urged individuals to confess their sins to one another and to seek out those who stray from the teachings of the faith, all in the hopes of strengthening the whole.  Such steps require courage. My friend Dick acted on that truth and I needed his word of correction in 1979. I suspect there are times when we all need that gift from others, too. 

For in any group of people, there can be individuals who annoy us. It might be the classmate who cracks his knuckles or taps the desk with his finger while the test is underway. It could be the neighbor whose yard is a mess or perhaps the one whose lawn is immaculate and makes ours look bad by comparison.  It could be the co-worker who is always bragging about her grandchildren or the one who frequently cooks something that causes the break room to smell or the one who won’t let you forget that his team beat yours.  It can be any number of deeds large or small.  Get any group of people together and there will be some who are irritated by the very same acts that others find enchanting.  That’s the nature of life in a community.

Yet what James was pointing to was something his big brother modeled throughout his earthly ministry. Namely, to speak the truth in a way that brings people together and overcomes human barriers that don’t matter. It’s not always easy. It takes courage to speak. Sometimes, too, the better course of action may be to stay silent. Yet when done right, it can about a kind of healing we didn’t even know we needed.   

Truth-telling Savior, how often we hide behind our biases and mis-perceptions. Send me this day one who loves me enough to tell me what I need to hear.  Amen.