Guilt and Shame. Ugh! Don’t those two words make you want to close your eyes and mumble, “please, no!” I feel my cheeks grow warm at the thought of those two words. Guilt is heavy. Guilt makes our heads droop. But Shame? UGH! Shame has a way of shutting us down and shutting our mouths.
I’ve been thinking about shame- and how it works in our lives. Shame is a pillow that snuffs the voice. It’s the hand over the mouth. I read an article recently that asked what shame tastes like, sounds like, and smells like. This is what I wrote in my journal: Shame tastes like lukewarm water—or maybe a bland egg white. Shame smells like a skunk! It’s familiar—you know what it is, and you can’t do a darn thing about it. Once a skunk sprays their perfume, the awful smell can’t be taken back. It just lingers. To me, shame sounds like an air filter running in the background—a loud white noise drowning out all the other sounds around.
While deep in thought about how awful shame is, I googled a definition and found this spot-on description. Brene’ Brown describes it like this: “Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belong and connection.” Bingo. She continues, “The fire of shame is fed by silence, judgment, and secrecy; left to burn, it can damage all aspects of our lives.” Yep!
I am incredibly amazed at how God takes our shame and turns it into glory. Zephaniah 3:19 gives us an example of this. “At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame.” God is a God of restoration. God is a merciful God of redemption. Not only is He our glory and the lifter of our heads, but He is also the one who restores our God-given dignity so that we bear His image well.
The Bible is full of shame-turned-to-glory examples. The week I happened to be thinking about this idea of “Shame,” just so happened to be the week our praise team was working on the worship song, “Same God.” The song is about how God is the same—yesterday, today, and forever. The lyric says something along the lines of calling on the same God of Jacob, Moses, Mary, and David. It hit me…. All of those Bible heroes had experienced God turning their shame into glory! All of them were silenced and shut down, but God! Jacob—the lying heartbreaker. Moses—the run ahead, do things my way, make a mess guy. And sweet Mary, pregnant and unmarried. She never dreamed she would be a pregnant…….. virgin! And I can see dear ole David so full of shame that he lay face-down in sackcloth for a week. Even so, God turned all of their shame into glory even those who brought their shame on themselves. God redeemed Jacob’s past and gave him a new name. God redeemed Moses purpose and call. God redeemed Mary’s reputation and made her the most respected woman on earth. And God redeemed David’s heart to the point of referring to it as a heart after His own. God: A Redeemer of Shame.
My friend- if you have been shut down and silenced because of shame, it’s time to ask God to turn it into glory for His glory. He will because shame is a distortion of who we are in Christ. Shame veils our true worth as an image-bearer. It’s time we feast on the truth of what God says about us. We are loved. As believers, we belong to the King of kings. It’s time to sing as my friend Joseph Habedank would- “There ain’t no shame on me!” And if you’ve never met my Jesus, I would love to introduce you to Him. He is the only one who can remove guilt and redeem our shame.
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