Try it like this

I heard someone talk about secrets just about a week ago, and I had never heard it explained before.  It's been percolating in my mind ever since, as at least one recent person has discovered when I completely failed to elocute it well.
My friend was teaching a group of new Children's Ministry volunteers at the chapel, and I only came in for the very end to listen to what it was about.  I heard him say, "If a child comes to you and says 'I want to tell you something, but you have to promise not to tell anyone', you must tell them that you want them to share, you want to listen and help, but that you won't make that promise."  What?  Don't you want them to confide in you?  He explained it this way:
The moment you make that promise, to keep their secret, you set yourself up as their functional savior.  I will be the one to help you.  You can place your hope in me.  But that's not our role, obviously.  It seems like a small thing, but what do secrets do?  They separate us... they burden us often.  Not secrets like birthday presents, that's not really a secret even - it's a surprise.  And not something private.  That's something you can still tell people who are close to you.  A secret is something you can't tell anyone.  So it separates you from people... one more way in which you are alone.
The metaphor John gives us for heaven is a place with no night - only light, everywhere.  The idea is that nothing is hidden.  There are no liars in heaven, he records.  No untruths, no misunderstandings... and no secrets.  Perfect intimacy is a place where we lay our armor down and no longer consume ourselves with our own protection.
It was something that hadn't occurred to me.  Hopefully next time I'll be better at communicating.

-J