My son loves to go to the PlayPlace at McDonald’s. One day while we were there, a spontaneous game of hide-and-seek broke out. One little girl stood just outside the play area, covered her eyes, and started counting. All the other kids scattered like ants and begin scrambling to find a place to hide. What struck me as odd was that this particular play area was nothing more than a Jungle Jim covered with see-through netting. There really was no place to hide. It didn’t seem to matter to the kids as they when on playing this game for another thirty minutes, giggling with glee.

So often we play the same game with Our Lord. We do things and believe we can hide them from everyone, including Jesus. But the reality is that Jesus can see right through our attempts to hide our sins, our selfishness, or our pride. We often expend so much energy trying to hide them, but, just like my son’s game at McDonald’s, hiding is futile. Jesus taught us the way to handle our struggles with sin: surrender. He is calling you to come out of the shadows of shame and regret and to fall down at his feet and let go. Let go of all the things you have grown attached to that are wrong or sinful. Let go of the anger, let go of the lust, let go of the selfishness, let go of the pride. It is the only way to true lasting peace and joy.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. – Luke 9:24

Originally posted 2014-06-24 06:00:43.