A Trip to the Doctor

"Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." - St. James (5:16)

In the Orthodox church, before you can be received as a communicant, you give a life confession to your confessor. As someone with many sins and a laundry list the size of infinity of sins, this was a daunting task for me. My wife and I decided to go and meet with our confessor before a vespers service. My wife went first, so I waited outside. As I was waiting, I felt like I was in a doctor's waiting room. When I wait for the doctor, I have thoughts like "should I tell him about this? It could be related to this problem. Or should I just give the basics? Or should I be detailed?" Just like the feelings I have at the doctor, it was the same as I had waiting for my time to confess.
Confession is just like visiting a doctor. You ponder how to express your illness beforehand, you have a nervousness about what the outcome could be, you confess your symptoms, and the confessor heals and gives a prescription.
As I made my life confession, I felt relief, because finally it was off of me and I become reliant on Christ and the Church to help bring me to true repentance and eventually (hopefully), with my co-operation with God, on my way to theosis, to healing of soul and body. I have always said that I cannot be a Christian by myself, I need the church; And the Orthodox Church has the necessary and stable structure in place for sinners like myself to become healed in Christ. I confessed my sins, we stood in front of the icons of Christ and the Theotokos, and a blessing was granted. My confession ended and it was not as bad as I had thought. In fact, the weight was lifted off my soul (and it was a heavy weight). Forgiveness was granted at my chrismation, and after my confession I was given a prescription to aide me in my faith.
If you are not a part of a church that practices confession, it is a shame and you are missing a huge part of the Christian life. I don't mean "an accountability partner". I mean a spiritual father or mother ordained for the task. As an Orthodox Christian, I am blessed with the wisdom and foresight of my spiritual father and hope for all Christians to take advantage of this sacrament and gift given by Christ.