Dark Secrets
Dark Secrets
My disgrace is before me all day long, and shame has covered my face. (Ps. 44:15)
Allison finally gathered the courage to visit a Christian counselor. Once there, she didn’t know where to start. The sexual abuse of her childhood, ugly as it was, seemed to belong in a different lifetime. She sometimes even felt as though she had dreamed it. But other times the shame of those dark secrets raised its ugly head with paralyzing ferocity. She was ready to deal with the past once and for all.
“Don’t feel you have to tell me everything today,” the counselor said when Allison seemed to be searching for where to start. “We’re beginning a process that may take us a while, but eventually you’ll gain victory over your past.” Allison hadn’t really considered victory a manageable goal; she had just hoped for coping skills.
“You really think I can get to the point where this doesn’t hang over me like a dark cloud?” asked Allison.
“Absolutely,” the counselor answered with an encouraging smile. “When you bring what happened in secret out into the open, examine it for what it really was, and allow God to bring healing, Satan can no longer use it to shame and victimize you.”
Many of us have things in our past that we hide from others because they bring us such shame. While we don’t need to broadcast them, we also don’t need to allow those dark secrets to pull us into the shameful shadows they cast. Whether we are victims of another person’s sin or responsible for our own rebellion, we can live in the light without fear of condemnation. No matter what you have gone through, God knows and has put all your tears in His bottle (Ps. 56:8).