you are loved

If you are unfamiliar with PostSecret, you should become familiar.  It is an interesting phenomenon that started as a small social experiment and has now developed into a website, a virtual online community, and several published books.  People send in their “secrets”, or really anything they want to share in really creative ways on a postcard and some get posted on the website or published.  Some are heartbreaking and some are funny, but all of them are seething with the honesty and transparency that every human being craves.  I think it is true that the two most burning human longings are to be known and to be loved.  PostSecret is interesting because, although it is a step towards vulnerability, where some people share their deepest scars and fears, it is nonetheless an anonymous, impersonal outlet.  I can only hope that people who share secrets will be pushed to dig deeper in real relationships with people.  My prayer would be that the hordes of hurting people that post their secrets would be able to wander into a local church and share their burdens with a Jesus-centered family, to experience the kind of community full of grace, honesty and compassion that God uses to heal our wounds.  It absolutely crushes me that many people would never think it possible to do that at church, so they are left to the reality of posting their scars on a random website and hoping that someone identifies or cares about them.  Oh that the Church could be where the hurting run instead of PostSecret.

On a happier note, something really cool happened with the last update of the PostSecret website.  Back in college, a group of us were involved in this campus ministry called Small Group, seeking to provide community for the lonely on our campus and serve people in tangible ways.  A few times we did these random things just to show people that we loved them.  One of the things we did was make notes and postcards to put in people’s mailboxes and under doors.  I found out tonight that one of the notes my friend Lauren sent out made it onto the PostSecret website:

Isn’t that awesome?  I just love it when you are slapped in the face with the truth that the little things really do matter, sometimes way more than you know.  You just never know who needs to hear that simple, yet earth-shattering truth.  How cool is it that in our world of broken, hurting, and lonely people, we get to bear the Good News that in spite of our junk we are loved relentlessly by a fiery-eyed God, and invited to be known deeply in the midst of His family.  You are loved.  I submit to you that there is no greater news than that.  May we tell it well.