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UFO sightings aren't the only unusual event in Roswell, N.M.
Earlier this year, Roswell police arrested Tony Peralta after he called 911 and confessed to killing his landlord 15 years ago. After calling 911, Peralta sat down on the side of the curb, smoked a cigarette and waited for officers to arrive. The event seemed so surreal that officers thought at first that Peralta might be mentally ill or was pulling some stunt. But when Peralta showed them the location of the body, police had all the proof they needed.
Peralta thanked the officers for arresting him saying, "I confess, man. I confess. I don't want to live life anymore without confessing." Peralta told the officers that he finally came forward because his "heart hurts" that he thought about his deed "every day." Tearful, Peralta told the officers that he didn't know why he had killed his landlord, but that he been drinking "a lot" that day and doesn't remember many of the details. Peralta asked the police to tell the landlord's family that the landlord "was a good man, and I shouldn't have done what I did. He was always good to me, and I took his life for no reason, and I don't have an excuse."
Peralta's confession puts him in good company.
King David, who ruled the nation of Israel while Israel was the dominant power in the world, had a similar experience. After committing adultery with the beautiful Bathsheba, David arranged to have her husband, Uriah, killed in battle. David himself didn't kill Uriah, but he was still guilty of murder, and David knew it.
In Psalm 32:3-4 (NIV), David tells us how he felt after committing both adultery and murder.
"When I kept silent," David writes, "my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." David experienced physical pain, emotional turmoil, sleepless nights and the awful sense of having offended God by his actions. David knew there was nothing he can do to fix it; the deed was done. So in Psalm 51, David did the only thing he can do; he turned to God for forgiveness. "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings," David said. "My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise."
David pleaded with God: "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
David repented and God responded. Proverbs 28:13 reads "Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy." 1 John 1:9 promises Christians, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Guilt is a heavy burden. In 2006, Helmut Bleibtreu, 84, from Herne in Germany, turned himself in to authorities to confess that, more than 80 years before, he had placed a firecracker on the railroad tracks and then run away when he saw the railroad police.
Helmut Bleibtreu had been tormented for his whole life by the guilt of an act committed at pre-school age. Bleibtreu was relieved when the officers let him go with a warning: "Don't do it again."
Are you tired of your load and you need to "come clean"? What torments you and keeps you from sleeping well? What weighs heavy on your heart? A lie told long ago? An abortion? A hidden addiction to pornography, drugs, or gambling? Harsh words spoken in anger that ruined a relationship? Welched on a bill or broke a contract? Caused an "accident"?
God offers forgiveness through Christ but, truth be told, sometimes people also need to hear another person verbally tell them that they are forgiven. Sometimes folks need to "get it off their chest" and confess in order to find personal peace.
If that describes you, then do what Tony Peralta, King David and Helmut Bleibtreu did: Go make your confession. Unburden yourself. Face the music. If there's still punishment waiting, take it. Once you've confessed, your heart will sing like it hasn't sung in years!
Mark Wilmoth
Pinehurst Christian Church
Marietta