No Secrets

No Secrets

When I was 15 I got a summer job working for this rich family that lived in this mansion in the country,

near Barrington Illinois.

I remember I was making $1.50 an hour.

I was doing yard work, raking, cleaning their garage,

things like that,

and I worked for them for the whole summer,

I got to know one of their sons, who was a couple years older than me,

I remember his hobby was making his own firecrackers,

He showed me the shed where he made them,

but he didn’t make them the size of any firecrackers I ever saw,

he’d make them the size of a stick of dynamite.

But on the whole this family seemed to be pretty normal,

and I enjoyed working for them that summer.

About six months later, I was back in school,

and I pick up the newspaper,

and there’s a story about this family.

And it turned out they had a little secret they were hiding.

The police had just arrested the whole family.

They were a bunch of robbers.

They’d been robbing the homes of wealthy people, for several years.

In fact, they’d done at least one robbery while I was working for them.

They did a great job of keeping it a secret,

but secrets have a way of eventually coming out in the open.

Did you know that God wants us to live our lives as if there were no such thing as a secret?

Luke 12 Jesus says:

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

Notice, he says:

What you have said in the dark

in other words what you whisper to someone

hoping nobody else will find out about,

or what you gossip,

or what you say behind someone’s back

hoping they won’t find out about,

what you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

Here’s the bottom line.

GOD WANTS US TO LIVE OUR LIVES, AS IF THERE WERE NO SUCH THING AS A SECRET.

That is one of the primary keys to love and joy and happiness and fulfillment in life,

Never ever, do anything that you assume will remain a secret,

and never ever, say anything that you assume will be kept a secret.

And never even think things that you hope will remain a secret.

Because the truth is, even what we think can become known intuitively to others.

Have you ever had a time when someone close to you just knows what you’re thinking about, and you didn’t say anything, but they just knew?

People say and do things all the time

that they are counting on, and assuming, will remain a secret,

and they are found out every time.

Just pick up any magazine or newspaper,

and you’ll find example after example of this.

There are headlines in every newspaper,

broadcasting to the whole world

things that somebody was sure

would remain a secret.

Everything in life eventually becomes public.

and there is nothing that does not have the potential to become public.

And if you will live your life in that way,

assuming that everything will eventually be made public,

then it actually fills your life with incredible peace and harmony and innocence and joy and power,

because you know there’s no one anywhere who knows anything about you that could bring any harm or guilt or accusation against you, because your life is an open book.

There’s no skeletons in the closet,

no secrets on the internet,

no rendezvous in other cities,

no secrets going on at the office or on the job,

no secret scheming

no secret words, or gossip,

no patterns of your thought life that you’d be ashamed of,

no possessions or books or reading material that you’d be embarrassed by.

You see, all those things all those little secrets,

add up and accumulate in your life

and they mildew and fester

and eventually make it so people can’t trust you.

And you see

trust is the basis of a healthy family life,

And its the key to a healthy marriage,

and the foundation of healthy relationships at work,

or school,

or anywhere.

You must have trust.

If you want long term healthy relationships,

you must be trustworthy.

And if you say or do things in secret,

hoping nobody will find out,

you need to recognize that

its only a matter of time till it comes out,

and causes turmoil in your family,