PostSecret

You probably have heard of the PostSecret phenomenon, in which people anonymously confess a secret they have never told anyone on postcard and mail it to a man named Frank Warren. Frank then displays these postcards on this website
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Some of the secrets are funny, some are strange or scary and some are just heartbreaking. Thousands of people have mailed their secrets into a man that they don't even know, to be posted online for the world to read. Why?
My reactions to this have varied widely. When I first learned of this website I was intrigued. It was so fascinating to me to see what people would confess to total strangers. I then was annoyed that people would even do this and that someone would put all that effort into creating a website and several books that contain peoples most private confessions for what I understood to be entertainment. That was several years ago when I first learned of the project. I have recently come across the website again and this time my eyes and heart have been awakened to see it for so much more. It is a community. Isn't that what we all long for? To be in honest relationship with others? To feel like we are not alone or that different from someone else out there? I realized that this is a way to be seen and heard. A way for people to experience a sense of release from these things that they have hidden so deep within themselves. These postcards remind us to be sensitive to those around us, because we never really know what someone is going through. I also watched a video of Frank Warren speaking about the project. He now goes around and uses this as a platform to speak to people about embracing who they are. On his website he explains that through this project people's lives have been changed and even saved. People have been touched by what others have written or have found comfort in the thought that someone else understands where they have been. My heart still breaks when I read some of the postcards, but now instead of casting judgement, I pray for the person who wrote that secret, because I have a relationship with a God that can provide all this website does and so much more and I hope one day the person experiences that freedom as well.