Big My Secret

I found the most intriguing, beautiful, and heartwrenching blog... and I barely know how to describe it. One guy has invited people to share their secret. The rules are that it must be true and it must be something they've never told anyone else and they can write it on a homemade postcard and mail it in to him, where he posts the images and secrets on his blog.

The website is www.postsecret.blogspot.com.

Some of the secrets make me chuckle; most make me cry. And, like some of the comments at the bottom of the site attest, I haven't felt this much compassion for strangers in a long time. There's something about finding out that other people are also human -- also vulnerable, also afraid, also sorting through these strange and unpredictable experiences of life -- that endears me to them. It's easier to love them and accept them. I'm convinced that's why Christ wants us to live in community, because we all know how hard it is to love others when they're strangers and seem to have nothing in common with us. When we have shared experiences though (hurts, traumas, dreams, and goals) we can better sympathize and empathize... in other words, show grace.

Some who have written comments about the site indicated that they did a similar thing: wrote or decorated a postcard and mailed in their secret, and expressed that it was incredibly freeing for their secret to finally be out, even if it was anonymous. Another person wrote that she did the same with friends -- they sat in a circle, each wrote down a secret and put it in a hat, and then took turns reading the secrets, and then owning them. And she said the resulting conversationg was better than any therapy session could ever be. One person calls PostSecret "a beautiful sorrow, a virtual wailing wall."

Of course this makes me question, What's my secret? And, Should I tell? Will someone recognize my writing and know it's me? I can remember two separate instances offhand where two different people shared with me something very personal, something that not many (if any) others knew. And I remember their reservation and guardedness as they told me. But in those two instances, I decided to tell them each a story of something similar that had happened to me, a way that I could relate to them. So I told them each a Big Secret of mine, something that I had never told anyone. And I will never forget the look of relief on their faces that there was someone else who understood and had experienced their sense of fear and guilt. I hope that people who send their postcard to PostSecret also get that shared feeling and know that they aren't alone. Because isn't that such a crafty thing that Satan does? We know our sin is bad in the first place, but then he convinces us that we're the only ones who do it and we had better not tell anyone, ever.

That makes me want to tell everyone my secrets and be completely transparent. So let's whisper to each other our secrets some time. Or write them on a card and have a little group therapy session. Or maybe instead of that I'll send one in to PostSecret.