Last night McCain set an example of how one ought to go about admitting one’s mistakes.
As you may or may not know, Sen. McCain dumped the late night David Letterman show last month on his way to Washington DC to deal with the financial crisis. Normally, this would not have been a problem had Sen. McCain actually done what he said. However, he made the mistake of deciding to appear on an interview with Katie Couric at the same time that he would have been taping the Letterman show. And, to compound matters, Katie Couric is on the same network as Mr. Letterman. So, we were treated to the embarrasing video of Sen. McCain being made up for the Couric interview just down the hall, while the Letterman show was being taped. In other words, he could have made the Letterman show, but chose not to do so.
Sen. McCain appeared last night on the Letterman show, to make up for his mistake. And, when Mr. Letterman asked, “What happened?,” Sen. McCain uttered one simple phrase, “I screwed up.” No unnecessary explanations, no extended apologies, no rationalizations. Rather, Sen. McCain did both the honorable thing and the Christian thing. When pressed once by Mr. Letterman, Sen. McCain repeated the same phrase, “I screwed up.” And that was the right thing to do.
Too many of us nowadays add words to our apologies. We minimize our apologies with psychobabble explanations. We only partially admit to responsibility. We deflect the full weight of our actions. We do all we can to not state a simple admission of guilt. “Yes, I did that. I was wrong.”
Sen. McCain ought to be commended for his simple admission. If one wants to know how to admit guilt properly, one need only look at Sen. McCain yesterday. One admits guilt: simply, honestly, and without explanation. And, that is what our Lord wants when we come before Him in either confession or in prayer.
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