We all feel it, we all experience it. Sometimes we are on the receiving end and sometimes we are dishing it out. Shame. I referring to the shame that we drag around with us. The baggage we constantly carry that we try not to acknowledge let alone talk about. Shame is not a place we want to live and yet many people do. So what can we do about? There is no easy answer but there are some clear things we need to take a hold of. First, we need to stop creating environments were it can flourish. If we can create safe places for people to be open about their struggles and challenges then we will find that the shame that often co-exists with our struggles will begin to evaporate. As we are called children of the light I like to think that means we aren't afraid of things that are exposed by the light. The things that we hide away also cause us to pull away. We need to be surrounded by people who will remind us of God's grace and help restore us. While we are called to hold one another accountable to our shortcomings that accountability must be carried out in love and grace. Can we establish relationships were we feel safe to admit our failings and feel loved? If we can, then we can help each other experience God's forgiveness in a new way. We can experience love and freedom as we recognize that confession and forgiveness don't need to be tied too shame. I think that walking in light partly means that we cannot walk in shame. We need to have relationships that allow us the freedom to confess, to experience grace and to feel loved despite our failures. Can we walk together, carry each others burdens and experience what it means to love and be loved?
"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."
1 John 1:6-7
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