Shame

I've had a lot on my mind this week.  Hurting loved ones, people making bad choices all around me, my own feelings of inadequacy, my own bad choices.  I'm becoming more aware of shame and shame-driven decisions in myself and the people around me.  I think the root of our life-messes is the result of acting out in shame. Guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness, disgrace, disappointment, dishonor.  How much of life is just making the best of our situation?

I think this started at the very beginning when Adam and Eve were tossed out of the Garden.  Come to think of it, even before that, it was shame that the serpent used to trick the first humans.  "You are not good enough as you are, you need to eat this forbidden fruit so you may see as God sees and know what God knows.  Your existence as you know it is not enough. You could be so much better."  And then sin enters the world.  Or so the story goes.  The husband blames the wife, the wife blames the serpent, and all of them, deep in their hearts, blame God.  He's the one that made the tree, afterall.  And we all hide in shame because of one bad choice...and perhaps also hide in our shame for not trusting the One who created us.

Ironically, the main thing that promises freedom from this, is also shame-based: religion.  I can't think of any religion that isn't a list of rules, a standard that we can barely attain.  There's a promise of hope only if we jump through the right hoops and reach the right goals.  Christians will claim their religion is "different" from all the others in that our hope is in the Christ and not in what we do.  But that message is quickly diluted by a list of things we need to DO to measure up.  What a double standard!

So, what is the opposite of shame?  What is the key that unlocks the chains?  Love.  Jesus' only command was to love Him and love others.  That's it!  Now, how to live in that love and keep the shame from creeping in?  That's a good question.