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We welcome you to our site and our hearts. Make yourself at home! Are you struggling with life, marriage or ministry and you are a ministry professional, spouse or someone who loves one? This site is for you. Real humans and real solutions await. Simple fixes and pat answers are scarce but you will find insight, grace and hope. Read Disclaimer, go to Finding Help or click here to contact CRN.
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Featured Article: THE SECRET DRIVEN LIFE
I have only heard Gordon MacDonald speak one time. It was in the early summer of 1988. His talk encouraged me emotionally during a very painful period in my private life. His subject? The Private Life of the Public Person. I identified profoundly with him because my secret struggles were just surfacing. After he spoke I timidly introduced myself to him and mumbled a thank you through tears. The interchange was no doubt as forgettable for him as it was memorable for me.
At the time, my private life and public persona were beginning to merge. My secrets had been discovered. My self deception was ending. The appearances I managed so carefully were cracking like the cheap veneer on a dresser at Good Will. It felt like my soul’s fabric was held together by only a thread. God used Gordon MacDonald that afternoon to do some mending.
As I continued to mend, I was furious when I hit the walls of secrecy at church. In recovery meetings everyone told the truth. At church keeping our secrets seemed safer than telling the truth. Once I recognized my previous participation in such secrecy and gathered bits of grace on my recovery journey, I became less angry but the dysfunction of our secrecy still troubles me deeply. Recently I visited Christianity Today’s web site and discovered God was once again touching my life through Gordon MacDonald. His article, The Secret Driven Life, speaks succinctly to my frustration with the Church’s aversion to truth telling.
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