Secrets: What You Need to Know

Governments and individuals often keep secrets, and too often they are mishandled. The secret of secrets is knowing what should be secret and knowing who needs to know.

You may not find the term “need to know” in the dictionary. However government employees who deal with confidential information know what it means. Need-to-know is the practice of keeping secrets within the government. The only people who are allowed to know are those who “need to know.”

Although it is a good security principle, putting it into practice shows some flaws in our whole approach to secrets.

Security flaws

It is a flaw when people become so secretive about something that those who really do need to know—don’t know. It is not unheard of for military commanders to plan a secret operation while someone who has vital information regarding the operation is kept in the dark and unable to help.

Sometimes the wrong people know anyway. A traitor won’t be bothered by need-to-know. There is little that anyone can do to stop a traitor, and they are often hard to recognize until too late.

Personal need-to-know

The principle of need-to-know is commonly applied outside of governments. There is hardly a person who hasn’t practiced the principle.

When was the last time you kept a secret? Did you tell that secret to anyone who didn’t need to know? Maybe you even kept it from a few of the people who did need to know for fear that the secret would become widely known.

Secrets

It is natural for us to keep secrets, usually about some embarrassing moment or mistake that we would prefer the whole world didn’t know. There are many things that we find best to keep secret. Yet most of us often feel compelled to tell someone else. For this reason, we tell a close confidant and friend. However, we have to be careful (Proverbs 11:13; 20:19). If we must tell our secrets, it should be to those friends who are trustworthy, the ones who won’t betray us.

One reason people keep secrets is to protect their friends. If someone learns that a friend is doing drugs, he or she may keep it a secret in hopes of avoiding trouble. However, the trouble is already there. What you are doing by keeping this kind of secret is withholding information from those who need to know. You can’t help your friend, but his or her parents and the proper authorities can.

We need to be wary about our own personal need-to-know and make sure that we apply the principle properly.

Keeping secrets from God?

Can you keep a secret from God? Most of us know the answer is no! Yet when we sin, do we try to keep it hidden from Him? God knows all of our sins, so the best thing to do is to repent of the sin and ask God to help us change. He knows our hearts and He can help us better than anyone else.

Jonah is a famous example of a man who tried to avoid submitting to and communicating with God. When God told him to go to Nineveh, Jonah went on a boat in the opposite direction. He tried to go to Tarshish and expected to get away with it. He seemed to act as if God wouldn’t know where he was going.

Jonah’s journey was never a secret from God. God knew he was heading the wrong way the moment he set his mind on that path. Later on, Jonah found out that it was pointless to try to avoid God. We should learn from his example that there are no secrets from God (Isaiah 29:15).

Wisdom about secrets

A truism I have found is that you can have a multitude of secrets or close relationships, but not both. Too many secrets can hurt friendships. If you keep a lot of secrets, it’s hard to keep close friends. It’s best to keep some things secret, but you need to wisely distinguish between things that should be kept secret and things that shouldn’t.

God is the only one that we need to openly communicate with about everything. He is above any need-to-know group. He will always be there for our good. Secrets must be handled with wisdom and concern by all of those involved.

Joshua Travers is a high school senior who attends the Athens, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association. He enjoys writing and reading.

For more about communication, see:

• What Do Your Fingers Say?
• A Word to the Wise
• The Basics of Meaningful Conversation 101