Secrets

In the past few months, I've become obsessed with the television series, Brothers and Sisters. This family drama, currently available on Netflix, centers around the highs and lows of the Walker family. At the series' beginning, the patriarch suffered a massive heart attack that sent the family reeling. While dealing with their loss, the adult children of Mr. Walker began to learn of the secret life their father led. The rest of the series thus far has explored the devastating effects of these secrets.

It seems that secrets are highly prevalent in our society. Because they are so common, we sometimes fail to acknowledge just how destructive they can be. By their very nature, secrets are truth withheld. They are intended to keep another from grasping the entire picture. I'm not talking about the secret kept from the honoree at a surprise party. When we look carefully at our big secrets, they are often a lie of omission. We allow others to believe an untruth by not providing them accurate information.

Secrets can quickly tie you up in knots. In order to protect the secret, we find ourselves having to hide more and more. In reality, secrets beget secrets! It's quite possible to get so involved in withholding information that we forget what the secret is . . . and that's when things start to unravel. As secrets unravel, we begin to experience some degree of shame while our reputation and honesty is called into question by those we were keeping the secret from. We find ourselves in a downward spiral as the truth is revealed in its entirety.

What would happen if we just avoided secrets from the beginning? I think we would find that our lives would be much easier all around. Rather than living in fear that our secret might be exposed, we would have the pleasure of simply existing in a state of openness and honesty. Whatever secret you're holding onto today, I encourage you to simply let it go, deal with the consequences, and move forward in honesty. After all, "the truth shall set you free." (John 8:32)