Buechner, Lewis: Telling Secrets
“I have come to believe that by and large the human family all has the same secrets, which are both very telling and very important to tell. They are telling in the sense that they tell what is perhaps the central paradox of our condition—that what we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else.”—Frederick Buechner in Telling Secrets, Buechner Quote of the Day.
In Telling Secrets, Buechner reminds us that we are often like the dwarves in the stable in The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. We do not see the good or realize that beauty surrounds us, but live trapped by our dark secrets. We are as sick as our secrets, and can only get well by airing these secrets, if only in our own hearts. Like the dwarves, we live our lives huddled together in what we think is a cramped, pitch-black dark stable where there is little room to breathe. In reality, we are in the midst of an endless green meadow where the sun shines and the sky is blue. Aslan himself (God) stands there offering freedom, but the dwarves cannot see him and only see each other.
We are our secrets, and sharing them with a trusted spiritual friend has much to do with the mystery of how to stay connected to the God within us, as well as honoring our own humanness.
What secrets are we carrying into the new year that will keep us living in the dark?
Joanna joannaseibert.com
