What’s The Secret?

What’s the Secret?

If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

1 John 1:9

Two experienced fishermen went ice fishing. They chopped holes in the ice, put worms on their hooks, dropped their lines into the water, and three hours later, they had caught nothing. Then, a boy came along with his fishing gear. He cut a hole in the ice midway between the two fishermen, put a worm on his hook, dropped his line into the water, and immediately, he caught a fish. He repeated the process, over and over again, until he soon had a catch of a dozen fish. The two fishermen watched and were flabbergasted.

Finally, one of the men approached the lad and said, “Young man, we’ve been here for more than three hours and haven’t caught a single fish. You’ve caught at least a dozen in just a few minutes. What’s your secret?” The boy mumbled an answer, but the man didn’t catch a word of it. Then he noticed a large bulge in the boy’s left cheek. “Take the bubble gum out of your mouth so I can understand what you’re saying,” the man said. Whereupon the boy cupped his hands and spat it out. “It’s not bubble gum,” he said, “it’s my secret. You’ve got to keep the worms warm.”

Everybody likes to be in on a secret. Why? For the simple reason that secrets are often helpful. Who doesn’t want to know the secret to baking a great chocolate cake? Or avoiding a traffic jam? Or raising good kids? We like to be “in the know.”

But there are secrets we keep to ourselves that are definitely not helpful. These are the things about ourselves—our character flaws—that keep us from being authentic. They are little secrets (sometimes big ones) about our selfish sides that we don’t want anyone to discover.

So are you feeling brave enough to let the secret out and confess? Some little selfish side that comes out at certain times? Confession to God, who knows it all anyway, is the path to being cleansed from unrighteousness. And confession to one another keeps the marriage relationship open and honest. And here’s a little known and helpful secret: you’ll be amazed at how a little revelation can bring you closer together.

The naked truth is always better than the best-dressed lie.

—Ann Landers