Since his early teenage years, my father was an avid swimmer and lifeguard.  One summer, when he was not attending swim practice, Coach Keller hired Dad to manage and lifeguard a small pool and clubhouse.   During one afternoon, while cleaning up around the pool deck after closing, my father began tossing some kickboards towards the clubhouse to quickly tidy up the place.  Mistakenly, though, he tossed one a little too hard and sent it through one of the huge windows of the clubhouse.

“Oh no!” Dad thought to himself, placing his hand to his forehead.  “What am I going to do?  This will take up most of my summer earnings!”

Suddenly, Coach Keller walks out across the deck, notices the broken window, and asks my father, “What happened here?”

Dad then confesses honestly to his wrongdoing, and Coach responds, “Oh.  Okay.  Well, I needed to purchase a new window anyway.”  Dad felt so relieved!

How many mistakes do we make here at the hospital?  Confessing to these not only enlightens everyone to the dilemma and helps us all to work together as a group to correct them; it also lightens the emotional burdens of the particular individual.  In John 8:32, Jesus states that others “will [eventually] know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  Free from possibly so much guilt.  Free to take corrective measures.  Free to move forward and perform better in the future.  So, the next time a mistake happens, consider the following: What went wrong here, and what needs to “be set free”—now as well as later in the future?