“Do you need to pee?”

“No.”

“Pee anyway.”

This is how our family trips would start when I was a kid. It was like a ritual. Before we piled into the back seat of the car with Dad patiently waiting behind the wheel, my mother would stand at the front door and ask us The Question. We’d always say “no”, she’d always tell us to pee anyway, and then we’d race to the bathroom. One by one we’d take our turn, and we’d always manage to squeeze out at least a trickle. It never ceased to amaze us how our mother knew our urinary tract better than we did.

Now let’s put this in a spiritual context:

“Do you need to repent?”

“No.”

“Repent anyway.”         

I’m wondering how many of you reading this will deny your need to repent. I’m wondering how many will deny that you might have even a trickle of a sin to squeeze out of you.

Repenting is not something you do just on special occasions. It’s not even something you do only when you feel the need to. Repenting is something you should be doing every day as a matter of course, the way you wash your face every day. You wash your face because it makes you feel clean and refreshed. You repent for the same reason.

Sin can creep into us unawares and hide in places we don’t think of looking. It can hide in unforgiveness and grudges, it can hide in coveting (that slightly strange old-fashioned word that just means wanting what we don’t need), it can hide in pride. Sin, like dust, can cling to anything. Did you know that dust even settles on walls and ceilings? I mean, who dusts their walls and ceilings? I actually know a man who vacuums his walls and ceilings because he well knows that dust can settle on them as easily as it can settle on furniture.

Sin can settle anywhere on a soul, and just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. My mother well knew that we always had at least a trickle of pee in us, just as God well knows that we always have at least a trickle of sin. You can deny it, but go ahead and repent and see for yourself.

You might be surprised at what comes out.