In traditional medicine practices, the body, mind, and spirit are integrated. You don’t treat one without treating the other. It’s a circle, a dance, a collaboration. In Chinese medicine, different emotions relate to different organs in the body. It may sound crazy if you’ve never come across it before, but in treating insomnia and adrenal fatigue, I have been astounded at how true I am finding the connection. Long story short, I refused to deal with the anger and pain that stirred up in my heart due to the event that Sunday, so it manifested itself elsewhere: a sleepless night.

My Chiropractor went on to remind me that in confession, sharing, “light exposure,” that our negative emotions, fears, pain, heartache, worry and more, lose their destructive power in our lives.

It’s no wonder that confession is one of the Sacraments.

James wrote that we should:

“Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.” (James 5:16).

Paul wrote to his friends in Ephesus and said:

“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.” (Eph 5:11-13 NIV).

When we take into account the use of hyperbole in the Biblical Text, Paul was making an exaggeration to drive a point home. It is impossible to have nothing to do with darkness. It is within us and around us. (Unless you'd like to tell me that you are perfect and perfect things happen all around you). But he does give us some tools to move forward: expose the darkness, look for the light, find the stars (yesterday's devotion), share with a friend, confess to a confidant. Don’t keep things hidden in the dark.

“Everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.”