(Updated from the original posting of August 8, 2008)
I picked up The Honolulu Advertiser from my garage and the headline read, “HTA Chief Urged to Resign: Adult-oriented Material Discovered in Johnson’s Agency E-mail Account.” The president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, Rex Johnson, had pornographic material on his state computer. Now the board of directors has to determine how to punish Johnson for improper use of state property.
This morning on the TV news and on the web, former presidential candidate and possible vice-president hopeful John Edwards is admitting to an affair.
(Most recently General Petraeus resigned from the CIA because of an affair with his biographer.)
We all have secrets. A secret is something you don’t want anyone to know about. But there is a difference between good secrets and bad secrets. A good secret is one that if found out, you wouldn’t mind if someone knew. For example, like how early you wake up to have your quiet times or the special gifts you give your spouse. It’s not something that you would tell most people but if someone found out, you’d still be okay. A bad secret is one that if found out, you would be very concerned, sometimes utterly embarrassed.
These stories about Rex Johnson, John Edwards, and David Petraeus highlight the relationship between SECRETS and SHAME, and I’m talking about bad secrets. If we were to plot it on an xy-axis, you could put SECRETS on the x-axis and SHAME on the y-axis. Then you need to draw a positive slope because they have a positive relationship. What you would see is that the more SECRETS there are, the more potential for SHAME. For Johnson, Edwards, and Petraeus, the shame not only affects them personally but also their families. If you are a Christian, you potentially shame the name of Christ.
As a leader, you need to be mindful of your secrets and eliminate them. We all have secrets, some are more damaging that others. Some secrets can be as minor as fibbing a little to your employer, or as major as having an addiction that has taken over your life. But no matter what it is, I believe God is very gracious and patient to allow us to deal with these secrets in PRIVATE. He gives us time to deal with them by coming before Him, confessing, repenting, and making things right, asking for His power and wisdom to guide us. We take the initiative to correct the situation by staying accountable to someone, removing items that led to an addiction, saying sorry to they person we lied to.
However, if the situation is not dealt with in PRIVATE, then it will be dealt with in PUBLIC. Please keep in mind, God is not here to shame us nor embarrass us. But if we don’t deal with things in the PRIVATE times, then sometimes God will have us deal with things in PUBLIC. This is what I believe happened with Rex Johnson, John Edwards, and David Petraeus. I believe they were given opportunities to correct their secrets privately but they didn’t, so now they are forced to deal with them in public.
Leaders, deal with your secrets now so that you can steward your time, talents, and treasures for the future for His glory.
Questions to Think About:
Are there any secrets you know the Lord is asking you to deal with?
What steps are you going to take today and in the coming days to bring correction?
What steps are you going to take so that you don’t slip into secrecy again?
© Gary Lau 2012
All rights reserved. This article may not be distributed, forwarded or duplicated without prior permission from the author.
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