Coming Clean

Maybe you have read the news accounts of this bizarre story out of London. Melvyn Reed recently had triple bypass surgery. Three women gathered to visit him only to discover they were all married to the same man. Melvyn has been charged with bigamy. Two of the women have found out their marriages were never valid.

Is it too cheesy to say, “Melvyn has a lot of healing ahead of him?”

What was he thinking? How did he juggle three wives? Did he really think he could get away with it? Did these women have no clue something funny was going on?

For years he had lived with these secrets. Think of all the hiding, all the deception, all the times he must have looked right into their eyes and lied. And after getting away with it for so long, he experiences chest pains and surgery is scheduled. The next thing you know the secrets of his private world are splashed all over the newspapers and evening news. Talk about being exposed!

While stories like Melvyn’s may be few and far between, many of us try to keep a secret compartment of our heart locked away from God and everyone else. In our secure area we may nurse grudges and grumbling, nurture greed and graft, or normalize gluttony and gossip. Sometimes there is some sort of sexual sin in the vault.

Are you keeping secrets?

If so, your worst fear is probably having those secrets revealed to anyone, much less to everyone. But the truth is, the best thing that could happen to all of us would be if those hidden sins we conceal in our hearts were printed on the front page of every newspaper in the world. Imagine your secrets in the front page headlines.

I don’t know what Melvyn is feeling, but I hope he is, at least at some level, relieved. No more hiding. No more pretending. Honesty at last. And I don’t know what you are feeling, but I hope, at the deepest level, you are encouraged to invite God into the most remote and secret places of your heart.

“Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life” (Psalm 139:23-24 The Message).

-- Bob Clark

10/4/2005