In the days before Caller...
Illustration
In the days before "Caller ID," there was an old practical joke of calling someone up on the phone and in a disguised voice saying: "I know your secret ..." and then hanging up! It was a prank practically guaranteed to work, because just about everyone has a secret or two.
Secrets are powerful things. They are chains that bind us tightly to ourselves, causing us to grow in misshapen ways. Like a goldfish that cannot grow to full size because of the small fish bowl in which it lives, our secrets keep us from becoming all that God created us to be. Like a carnival pony harnessed to a children's ride, our secrets force us to go in dusty, dry circles, never to explore the wide world we can see just beyond our blinders. When we live with secrets, we live with death.
Jesus comes to Samaria and he tells the woman at the well all she has ever done. He reveals her secrets. He says openly all that she had tried for so long to deny, to hide, and to forget. Painful at first, the experience of telling the truth allows the woman for the first time ever to rejoice, naming Jesus as her Savior and sharing the news of his coming with all of her neighbors. She had lived with her secrets a long time, dying in those secrets every day. But at last, she let go of the secrets and began to live once more.
Secrets are powerful things. They are chains that bind us tightly to ourselves, causing us to grow in misshapen ways. Like a goldfish that cannot grow to full size because of the small fish bowl in which it lives, our secrets keep us from becoming all that God created us to be. Like a carnival pony harnessed to a children's ride, our secrets force us to go in dusty, dry circles, never to explore the wide world we can see just beyond our blinders. When we live with secrets, we live with death.
Jesus comes to Samaria and he tells the woman at the well all she has ever done. He reveals her secrets. He says openly all that she had tried for so long to deny, to hide, and to forget. Painful at first, the experience of telling the truth allows the woman for the first time ever to rejoice, naming Jesus as her Savior and sharing the news of his coming with all of her neighbors. She had lived with her secrets a long time, dying in those secrets every day. But at last, she let go of the secrets and began to live once more.
