Freedom from our Secrets

About a year ago SDSU InterVarsity engaged the campus with an outreach called “No Secrets”. It allowed students to anonymously share secrets they had never told anyone before and learn about the freedom that Jesus offers us. We love it, and decided to bring this outreach to UCSD. With the leaders, we studied Mark 4 when Jesus heals the bleeding woman and found that her secret wasn’t that she was bleeding (everyone knew that). Her secret was when she touched Jesus’ cloak, she was healed! And because she had courage and revealed that secret to the crowds, Jesus restored her, set her free, called her daughter and commended her faith!

Here’s a secret a UCSD leader shared at a prayer time we recently had (with her permission)…

“I have been carrying this secret since my freshmen year. It’s not a secret from you guys, but from my family. I haven’t told them that last year I stood up at an InterVarsity meeting to start following Jesus. Nobody in my family believes in God and I am afraid to tell them. Afraid of what they will think, how they will react. But I don’t want it to be a secret anymore! They are coming down to visit this weekend for my birthday and I am going to tell them. That’s why I told you all, so I won’t chicken out.”

Later the following week… “I did it, I told my mom. We were waiting for a table at the restaurant. I was ready for a confrontation, it was probably one of the most nerve-wracking moment of my life. She was quiet for a minute, then smiled and said, “You really have changed, haven’t you?” Now I am closer to my family than probably ever before.

Isn’t this a great story? This leader is taking steps and risks for Jesus! Not only on campus, but with her family, which can be the scariest step of all. Her mom might not believe in God, yet… But she can see a change in her daughter, and her daughter was quick to point out that the change was Jesus, just like the bleeding woman. Jesus is the secret that needs to be told, to bring hope and freedom to students held captive!

Check out this video our UCSD students made about the secrets we carry