Since I work in law-enforcement (Sheriff's Chaplain) this reminds me of a person who is pulled over under suspicion for drug related activity. The officer asks them to step out of their vehicle and then asks if there is anything illegal in their vehicle. They respond, "No" and the officer asks for permission to search their car. Like an idiot, almost every time, the driver will say, "Sure, go ahead. I've got nothing to hide."
The officer searches, discovers a bag of "whatever", shows it to the person, who then say, "Hey, I don't know how that got there. It's not mine!"
It's like the person somehow believes that that when they give the officer permission to search that he'll say, "No, that's OK. I believe you. I'm not going to search your car."
It's human nature to hide our "darkness." But that is precisely the reason it gets exposed so that we can deal with it and get free. God gives ample opportunities for us to deal with the "darkness" privately so we are not "exposed." However, if we choose not to deal with it, it is not so much that God exposes us to shame us, it is simply that our failure to deal with it has caused that which we are hiding to continue to grow to a point that it gets exposed by virtue of its "size" and degree of impropriety.
I'm all for mercy for all who have sinned, but we either deal with it on our knees, get someone to help us etc. or we'll have to deal with it publicly. It really is our choice and God is on our side to heal us and set us free. If we choose our own route, then we'll just have to deal with the fall-out. Unfortunately, many others will get dragged into it as well and that is what AB is saying.
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