ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 17, 2022
Frederick Buechner died this week. If you don’t know the name, I want to encourage you to get to know his writings. I wrote on Facebook, “I feel like I lost a friend. He served as a mentor from the pages of his books.” He was a Presbyterian Minister, but mostly known as a down-to-earth theologian and author. In his book, “Telling Secrets,” he told us his secrets – the painful, uncomfortable and what some might consider embarrassing parts of his life. In the Introduction to the book, Buechner writes:
I have called this book Telling Secrets because 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. It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are—even if we tell it only to ourselves—because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing.
Those words challenge me, yet if I were to be fully forthcoming, I know exactly what he means by fear. I like to be the gatekeeper of my own story, making sure certain parts remain secure behind the well-guarded gate. With that said, I believe true living is found in authenticity. That sort of assumes the gate is open to some degree. This isn’t to suggest that everyone has to know everything about you, but as humans, we often convince ourselves that there are secrets about ourselves that we do not even tell ourselves.
Whether it be a hiding place in my mind or a well-locked vault within my heart, I know there is nothing outside your knowing. Holy and Loving God, provide me the courage to name out loud whatever needs to be named, even if you and I are the only ones to hear it spoken. In that moment, hold my hand and remind me of your love that knows no end. Amen.
