Lie #11: Christians can keep secrets.

Lie #11: Christians can keep secrets.
by Russ Masterson

My experience has been pastors are good at keeping their mouths closed when it comes to confidentiality, probably because pastors feel it’s part of the call of God on their lives, and perhaps also because it’s the way in which pastors keep their jobs.

But for many of us Christians, when it comes to secrets, our trust in each other is the downfall of confidentiality.

I tell you something private and ask you to tell no one else because I trust you. But you trust several other people, and your best friend is a sweet lover of Jesus whom you trust unto death so you tell her but admonish her not to tell anyone else. But she too trusts several other people, and she happens to have a godly dad. So she shares the news with her dad as to get his thoughts on the matter. And before you know it the world knows my news because we each trust a few people.

I know the lure to talk – I feel it when I hold some piece of news that others have yet to hear. It’s easy to want to speak it – there is a momentary inner surge of control and power. But there is a greater fulfillment when we become the types of people who don’t need to talk, who can be a vault, and hold a secret.

And later after the news is made public you can say to your friend, “Oh, I already knew that.” And they will know they too can trust you when they need a friend to listen.

Perhaps you’ve read this before, “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret” (Proverbs 11:13).

Tags: church, lies