Spiritual Blockage
Any of you had issues with clogged drains or toilets? Quite likely you have and may also have been unfortunate enough to land the job of removing the blockage from the pipes. Usually this is a job I assign to my husband (the role of strong independent female has its limits) but every so often he is out of town and the dirty work falls to me. Hopefully drāno suffices! If not…cue the gag reflex. Or shut the door to that bathroom and pretend the problem isn’t there! On a more subtle yet dire level, clogged arteries are far worse. Millions of dollars are spent on healthcare every year to reverse the effects of blocked arteries, restricting blood flow, and therefore oxygen, to the heart and throughout the body.
I shall spare you the descriptions of what we all know contributes to clogged pipes and arteries. But what about spiritual blockage? Is that a thing? What does a clogged spirit look like?
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1st John 1:8-9)
I find it ironic that there is so much talk these days about shame. Of course it is a worthy topic to research and discuss, but I find that our emphasis on shame equates to a doctor balking at blood instead of treating the open wound. We are evading the root of the problem. Sin is the problem. It always has been. I am broken, you are broken, we are broken—and all of that brokenness compiled over so much time, the built-up gunk of sin, creates a blockage of shame. We lose the ability to identify sin for what it is and start to internalize it to the point that there is no separation between ourselves and the sin that entangles us. We feel its effects as if it were integral to who we are. This is the pervasive and deceitful nature of shame. This is why we confess. Why we need to confess. Without it, our souls become clogged. If you think pulling out slimy, hairy, rancid gunk out of a drain is gross, imagine what the buildup of so much sin looks like! And every time, the Holy Spirit, our heavenly plumber, reminds us that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
Forgiveness has the same effect. We not only get clogged by our own sins but by the sins of others against us. Or the effect of living in a sinful world. There are many opportunities to harbor resentment. Even the most fortunate or privileged among us has a claim to victimhood. It is so tempting to withhold forgiveness because we have every right to be hurt and angry. Yet even the most egregiously wronged may suffer just as much from a lack of forgiveness as from the evil perpetrated against them in the first place. Resentment builds up over time until there’s no room for anything good to flow to the heart.
Recently I came across an article in National Geographic (March 2021) about individuals on death row who were wrongfully accused and eventually acquitted. The photographer who tried to capture the humanity of these men and women in his portraits made a keen observation about those who are able to reclaim their lives: “They are able to forgive. There are so many reasons that you can be hateful and mad at people, but you have to have the ability to forgive. Otherwise it just eats you up.” Read Jesus’ exoneration in the Bible to forgive seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22), or read a scientific magazine, and you can find evidence of the necessity to forgive.
I encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do the hard work of confession and of forgiveness diligently, enabled by the power of Jesus Christ and his Spirit, who will change our shame into praise! (Zephaniah 3:19)
Catherine Grady