Is my confidence showing?

         This Sunday's reading from 2 Corinthians 5 is most widely known for the last verse, where we are reminded that if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has passed away and everything is new.  This is wonderful news for all of us who claim Christ in baptism - our own failings, brokenness, and shortcomings are made new in the waters of Christ's death and resurrection.  However, the thing that is most striking to me in this passage is not the end, but the beginning:
    
So we are always confident.

The thing that struck me as odd about this is that
a) it seems like a weird place to begin
b) what are we confident in? or about? or of?  There seems to be an important piece of the sentence missing. 
c) Always.  Always?  As in never not?  Ever so?  Always? 

Yet it is clear, simple, and concise as ever.  We are always confident.

     To understand this verse, I think it would be helpful to read backwards a bit first.  Our reading yesterday ended with 2 Corinthians 5.1, not included this week, but a good place to pick back up.  If we start there, we would have, "For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens...So we are always confident."
     Our confidence comes in the knowledge, or faith really, that God has a home for us, eternal in the heavens.  No matter what happens here, in our temporary tents, as Paul calls them, our eternal home is secure in Christ Jesus, in whom we are made new. That is the key, I think, to be so sure, so faith-filled, as to say "we are always confident."  We are a society of second-guessers.  Sports commentators make a career of it.  We question our every move - did we say that correctly?  Should we have reacted differently?  Did they understand what I meant?  Am I under-dressed?  Overdressed?  Should I have ordered the chicken instead of the pork?  Vegetarian? 
    If there is one thing I am always doing, it is second-guessing.  Except our reading for Sunday sheds the light of truth on the lies that Satan uses to cloud our judgment.  We are always confident.  In Christ there is no second guessing.  Clothed in his mercy and grace, we are who we are.  And that is enough.  It is sufficient.  It is good, even. 
    Indeed, if any is in Christ they are a new creation.  In Christ we are free from our own second guessing, given the Spirit so that we too may be faith-filled and say that we, too, are always confident.  The question then becomes, not, "am I good enough" but, "I am good enough so how do I persuade others?"  Think about the conversations you've had recently.  My bet is that in them you've reassured someone that their shirt is nice, their hair is in place, they said/did the right thing, or that they made the right decision.
     But we have been given a confidence that no matter what happens in this temporary tent, all is well.  We have been given the spirit of confidence, not to fall back to fear, but to stand strong in Christ.  Can others see this difference in us, children of God?  Heirs with Christ, joined to his death and resurrection, is our life a witness to our renewal?  It leaves me wondering,
Is my confidence showing?