For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me (Psalm 51:3).

I knew someone once who was the proud owner of a sad story. His adulteries had been someone else’s fault. The wife was a nagging harpy. The job was stressful. No one really appreciated him. For years he’d denied and minimized and defended himself and his actions. He and his ex had not spoken for ages. His children wanted nothing to do with him. His friends had tried to maintain contact, but he’d required their approval as the price of his company—something they could not afford. He was alone, a solitary fortress bulwarked against any accusation of personal fault.

Through the years he stopped by my office to talk, bearing Starbucks as his votive offering. In his first visits, he tried to explain himself, hungry for my blessing. There was a long period when he used our time together to feel sorry for himself and complain about the tatters of his life. In later chats, he was obsessed with healing the rift between himself and his children.

There came a day, though, when he knocked at my door with empty hands and brimming eyes. He sat on my couch and, for the first time, confessed his own sins rather than everyone else’s. He wept out his guilt and remorse and sorrow. He saw what he’d done, how it had wounded the people he loved, how he had been tasting the bitter ashes of a life he’d burned to the ground.

It was a beautiful moment, the first step on a long road back to himself, to his kids, to God.

I have no idea what brought this man to a penitent place, the particular pigpen that forced him to face himself. But I do know who led him there.

There is a turning point in people that happens only by the power of the Spirit. It’s the point where they “get it,” where they see themselves and what they’ve done with sudden clarity, where their defenses and justifications are washed away by a flood of conviction. There is a point where people can finally tell the truth about themselves without evasion or excuse.

Some people, of course, resist this grace of God’s Spirit to the last breath. They march blindly to the beat of their own desires, oblivious in their self-absorption, casual about their sin. One of my favorite quotes is: “Man is not a rational creature; man is a rationalizing creature.” And it’s true. Humans are world-class blame-evaders.

But there is no growth without awareness of sin . . . no basis for relationship . . . no spiritual walk. The ability to “get it” is crucial to effective living. And the “turning point”—from evasion to confession, from defensiveness to responsibility—is a beautiful thing to see, a miraculous work of God. All good things begin with poverty of spirit.

I’ve tried prompting such poverty in others: cheating husbands, frustrated wives, rebellious children, arrogant church members, bitter septuagenarians, drunks, gluttons, and the greedy. I’ve confronted and cajoled and pleaded. I’ve tried brow-beating and tears. And the hard-won lesson I’ve finally learned is this: people won’t see the truth about themselves until they are ready; and readiness is a condition only the Spirit of God can produce.

It is the Spirit who brings people to the pigpen and to that precious moment of self-awareness. It is the Spirit who drives people to their knees. It is the Spirit who convicts, who (to use Robert Louis Stevenson’s brilliant line) can take “some killing sin and to my dead heart run it in.” It is the Spirit who holds up a divine mirror to broken lives and then grants people the courage to look long and hard.

When you see someone caught in the grip of remorse, stand back; the Spirit is at work. When you see hot tears flowing from a formerly hard heart . . . when you catch someone at the dawn of awareness of personal sin . . . when you hear words of confession and penitence where there has been only denial and minimizing—know that the Spirit is accomplishing some of his most important business.

Only the Spirit can convict people of sin. Only the Spirit can grant people the courage to confess and confront their guilt. Only the Spirit can lead people to that turning point when they “come to themselves” and repeat those healing words: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”

We would do more honest good for people and for the kingdom if we stopped chiding and reprimanding our sinful world and spent more time praying for the Spirit to do the convicting work only he can accomplish. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells