Far Better than “The Secret”

By Rev. Marcia Moret Sietstra

May 13, 2007     Spirit of Peace UCC

This morning I want to talk about a popular book and the best-selling DVD on the market today.  It’s called The Secret.  Some of you may have seen a story about it on television Friday night on 20/20.  According to The Secret, fragments of a Great Secret have been taught throughout the centuries. But now, for the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible, life-transforming way for all who experience it. Knowing the Secret is supposed to bring you success in every aspect of your life--money, health, relationships, and in every interaction you have in the world. The book flap says you'll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that's within you. 

I skimmed the book in a bookstore one day on vacation, because I wanted to see why it’s so popular and why it’s creating such a stir on religious internet blogs.  And frankly, I skimmed it because Oprah recommended it.  This book is like a field of wildflowers; there is a lovely idea or two in it, but there are a lot of weeds here too.  First, let me tell you what I like about the book, and then what I don’t like about its message. 

It really does reveal a not-so-secret Secret called the “Law of Attraction.”  The Law of Attraction says that the way you think and feel attracts certain experiences to you.  If you think positive, happy thoughts, you attract positive, happy people and experiences to you.  If you think negative thoughts, you’ll attract negative experiences to you.  Like attracts like. 

Here’s how you can make good things happen to you, according to “The Secret.  Let’s say you live in a dingy apartment and work at a job you hate. According to the Law of Attraction, you can attract a beautiful home and a wonderful job by visualizing it, by focusing on it, and by acting as though it is going to happen.  If you expect to get a nice home and a good job, and your focus is on finding these things, instead of resigning yourself to living in a dingy apartment with a lousy job, you will be watching for ways to do it.  Because you believe it, you will frame things more positively, and in so doing, you will enhance your chances for creating the circumstances you are aiming for.   I think they’ve got something here. Your thinking about the nice home and the great job really can help attract opportunities because what you focus on grows.   If you focus on complaining, you’re not focusing on making the changes you need to make.  If you focus on what you want instead, you will be consciously and subconsciously helping to make them happen!

Now imagine, instead, that you said to yourself, “I’m always going to be stuck in this dingy apartment working at this job that I hate.”  Imagine that you spend your energy feeling angry about your situation, or depressed about it.  If negative thoughts are consuming your energy, you are much less likely to attract positive changes to your life.  You won’t be visualizing positive changes, you won’t be working at them, and they aren’t likely to happen.

The Secret is really the power of positive thinking and focus. Visualize your goal, it says.  What you think about it is more likely to come about.  It’s like Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.”  Psychologists have long known that a person’s self-perception and their self-talk has a profound effect on them.  The book does a good job of teaching this:  By focusing on positive things, “what we want,” instead of negative things, “what we don’t want,” we can help create positive experiences in life.  That’s the big “secret” Law of Attraction.  

I think people find this book and DVD so helpful because it reminds us that the energy we send out comes back to us.  An angry person attracts anger.  A kind person attracts kindness.  Happy thoughts will attract happiness more than fearful thoughts or worry will.

So what’s not to like about The Secret?  For starters, it’s all about attracting good things to one’s self.   There is no mention of caring for others, no mention of the moral value of sacrifice so that others might have what they need. 

But the much bigger problem with The Secret is that it claims far too much.  It claims that our thoughts not only influence reality, they determine reality.  The book says that our thoughts are energy sent out into the universe where they tap into a Universal Supply, and if our thoughts are in harmony with that Universal Supply, they must return to us in like form, i.e. you place the order correctly, you get what you ask for. 

I wonder…what would the author say to a young mother in Darfur whose husband was murdered by Sudanese janjaweed soldiers, and who now watches her children slowly starve because UN relief agency workers had to pull out of the camp where millions of people have died while the world’s leaders lack the will to do anything about it?  How much can this African woman create her own reality by thinking positive thoughts and visualizing her goal?  Have her thoughts determined her reality, or is she the victim of a civil war she did nothing to create?

Closer to home, how much can a black teenager raised in the housing projects of Washington DC, with a substandard education, and no good mentors create the reality of a big, beautiful house and a good job by thinking positively? How does someone from an impoverished background access feelings of abundance and self-worth, when they never knew those things growing up?  It will help if they can think positive thoughts and visualize goals, yes, but let’s not imply that right thinking and hard work on his part are all it takes to make these dreams come true for him.  If you are colored and poor and uneducated, enlightened thinking has limited potential for you, because you are the victim of circumstances you did nothing to create.  Real barriers exist for billions of people on this planet, economic, political and social barriers that we should be working to change instead of visualizing how we can get bigger toys and better houses and more wealth for ourselves.

The Secret repeats an age-old mistake—holding the victim responsible for their misfortune.  Remember Job, who rejected that thinking?  Suffering cannot be avoided by right thinking or the right kind of praying.  Even Jesus could not create his own reality or control what happened to him.  He was crucified, not because he didn’t know The Secret but because he knew a much deeper wisdom that went way beyond positive thinking and prosperity gospel.  He knew that life brings suffering, sometimes through no fault of our own…that life is better when we take care of each other….but that there would be times when we would be driven to despair.

And so, shortly before he died, he told his disciples that God would send them a Spirit, the Holy Spirit.  He said, ““The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you… and remind you of all that I have said.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

The Holy Spirit comes to us precisely because we cannot control life, and we need God’s spirit to lift us up and to comfort us.  Like a good mother, who will stay up all night with a sick child.  We are dependent on the Spirit, who is like the mother who got her children safely out of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and who steadfastly comforts them and tries to instill hope in them, even though they cannot go home. 

It is the Spirit who sustains this mother.  Jesus said, “I do not give to you as the world gives.”  The gifts of the Spirit are comfort, gratitude, and especially hope.   I think suffering is not only part of being human, suffering may be a defining aspect of the spiritual journey, because it often leads us to depend on God, and it leads us to each other as we care for one another.

Jesus did know The Secret, but it’s not the secret of the popular book and movie.  It’s much more than the power to affect what happens to you by how you think.  The broader secret is this:  We can affect what happens in our own life, and we can affect the lives of others if we care to.  But we are not responsible for everything that happens to us, and when suffering comes, it is the Holy Spirit who lifts us up and sustains us

Today, we honor mothers for the kind of love that is willing to sacrifice; we honor Jesus who taught us to live not just for ourselves but for others; and we honor the Holy Spirit who sustains us and gives us Christ’s peace in the midst of all of life, especially the parts we can’t control.  Amen.