Secrets

We all carry them and every day I hear more and more from students who unload on my shoulders. I don't mind and I carry them back to God but I am so often amazed at how much pain a soul can carry around. How little a person can say to alleviate the burden and how much it means just have someone listen. It isn't restricted to teenagers or even just to parents...we all carry secrets of unresolved grief, hidden burdens, painful memories. Things that should not make a difference in how we live but sneak into every joy and expand every sorrow.
I was thinking about Mary Magdalene since our Pastor used her story in the Easter sermon. Her life was complete with sin and I can't imagine how many secrets and regrets she carried within. No wonder she followed Jesus so closely and why she was the last one to leave the cross and the first one at the tomb. She knew Jesus knew and she felt safe. Someone who looked into all her secrets and set her free...why not follow him closely. See if he ever uses the secret against her, or uses her as an example in one of his sermons, or smirks about who she as and what she did...Never. Jesus looked at her brand new. He makes everything new...everything...all that we are...all that we have done...all that we carry...New. He can do new unlike our enemy who can only make new, ugly.
Back to secrets...We need to unload them to each other, to the Other...walking out of those things that hold us in. He really can make us new...really.