“A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak.” Ecclesiastes 3:7 (NASB)

There are good ones, like surprises and gifts that bring us joy. And there are those that hold us hostage, feed our fears, heap us with shame, guilt, and regret. They call us names and throw rocks to keep our hopes pinned down. They cover us with heaviness, blocking light and truth. Gradually they choke us as we gasp out lies to cover them. All we need to do is speak up, but at what price? Can we bear being looked at in a new way, being thought of in a new way, perhaps answering questions to justify our actions, being judged by those we love, by strangers? Why are we held captive so by secrets?

There is a time to speak…

What if our silence is causing harm, to ourselves or others? What would happen if they knew? Surely the image so carefully built would crumble and tumble as a sand castle hit by a wave. Then what? Who would we be then? What would it change?

There is a time to speak…

As I’m working out the pages of my contemporary Christian fiction, my characters struggle with the secrets that have brought them to the circumstances where they now are. Until now, they’ve chosen silence and lived with the consequences.

But something is changing, something new is happening. Secrets are poking their way through a tiny shack off a red clay dirt country road in the tiny town of Morgansville, Alabama. People are starting to talk. People are starting to wonder, seeing glimpses of truth.

Is it still a time to be silent, or is this a time to speak?

Will these secrets tear them apart, or will it bind them together?