I want to share some thoughts with you around the idea of keeping a secret.
Can you keep a secret?
A secret about a surprise party?
Maybe.
About a recipe?
Maybe.
About a gift?
Maybe.
What about a shameful or disgraceful secret that you heard or you became privy to?
The secret about a juicy little story?
A piece of gossip?
Whoa,
That's another matter altogether.
Keeping a secret is a big thing.
A secret can be a heavy weight and a huge responsibility for the one who carries it.
Knowing the secret in some ways makes you a part of it and that isn't always the most desirable place to be.
Maybe in trust it was shared or perhaps you happened to stumble upon it.
How you got it really doesn't matter.
Knowing someone's deep secret is more than just having the scoop.
It's having someone in the palm of your hand,
Vulnerable to the power of your tongue.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue according to Proverbs 18 21.
Power is the operative word.
The damaging potential of a dark secret is rarely confined to the principles,
Thus the power of knowing the secret reaches far beyond what you can imagine.
How do you handle power?
People pay lots of money to keep their secrets hidden.
The secret to them has great value,
But most of the time the secret gets out anyway because somebody told somebody who had no investment in keeping the secret.
What I want you to think about is not the secret itself or the momentary rush you may get from passing on someone's juicy little tidbit.
I want you to think for a moment about the value to you in keeping the secret.
What it says about the depth of one's character in keeping a secret.
How you handle a secret reveals far more about you than the secret holds about its subjects.
Do you tell it,
Exposing Dick and Jane to be less than who they profess?
Do you open the closed doors of Jim's past,
Causing him to relive the shame?
Do you hold it for use at some opportune time in the future?
What do you have to gain by telling someone's secret?
Keeping a secret is more than any agreement you may have with someone.
It's a divine trust.
Can you be trusted to walk with that person through the valley of the shadow of shame until they get to the other side?
The Bible says that love covers a multitude of mistakes.
Is your divine love enough to cover it?
I'm Carol,
And this was my thought at first light.
