Unashamed-How God Uses Shame to Awaken the True Self

I cannot deny the fact God makes it intrinsically clear that He accepts me-in fact; He delights in me-as an individual bearer of His image. I am all that God wants me to be. The eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the heart, the mind, all were created just the way in which He desired them to be-“He looked at His creation and declared, ‘it is very good.’” The Beloved Disciple, John, understood this acceptance well and noted: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” Indeed, it is what we are. Yet, we cannot denounce the fact that everything-and I mean everything including every single cell in our earthly bodies-murmurs the opposite. It screams the chorus of a song we have been hearing our whole lives-“You are cursed and gone astray. You are unworthy, you have failed, you fall way short.” As if anticipating this response-or perhaps struggling with accepting the reality himself-John follows: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him.” Though all of which I am created to be is here, there are massive amounts which I have failed in understanding, grasping, nor mastering. A part of me remains hidden and undeveloped. Yet, the more amazing aspect is this: the work of the Holy Spirit precedes, fashioning our true selves. My friends, we can never construct the personality that pleases God, but God can and He promises to do exactly that. While yet still wallowing in sin-as the minor chords of Satan’s chorus played deafly in our ears-the end had been written. And like melancholy upon the ears, the major chords of the written refrain broke through to calm us-“Jesus Saves.” And as a result, “I am unashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”

Unashamed-The Gift of Shame

Just as my body would respond with loud pain if I broke my arm, so will my conscience speak very loudly with shame in the case of wrongdoing so that I will take the necessary steps of healing. Shame is not a state to cultivate or an emotion to be paralyzed in-though Satan would choose to reveal it as such. Ironically, God uses our shame so that we can gloriously be redeemed to unashamedness. Shame should have directional movement. Shame could be discribed as the current that helps to flow the river from past sin through the present repentence and restoration to future grace.
Just a few weeks ago, I was watching the Chicago Morning News to learn of an elderly couple found in their home, nearly dead. As I watched the story unfold, I was amazed to learn of the reason for their entrappment. This elderly couple were serious hoarders. Authorities mentioned that when they enetered the home they found that from ceiling to floor was trash. This couple lacked in the ability to throw things away; the natural receptor that would cause most people to throw things away as they deemed them unusable or rotten was lacking in the lives of this elderly couple. They reasoned that the trash they were keeping was not trash, but indeed things that they needed in their lives to help settle their souls from fear of losing everything and having nothing. Unfortunately, the very trash they hoarded to heal their souls was the trash that nearly took their lives. For nearly four days, the couple was trapped under an avalanche of trash.
As I sat amazed-and quite frankly chuckling-at the situation, I was reminded of how my soul really is no different than this elderly couple. I am a hoarder of expectations and selfishness. I soothe shame by surrounding myself with sin. I reason such thoughts and emotions away forcing my mind to believe I “need” such. I am sinking in the trash that surrounds me. Sadly, I am slowly being trapped by my own shame.
I wonder at what point the elderly couple switched form thinking that the stuff they had been hoarding was healthy for them and stuff of which they needed, to the undeniable wish and desire to have all the stuff lifted from them? To what extent must shame take us before we respond with a call for help?

I Despise Shame-The Paralyzing Effect of Shame

If the impulses of gratitude have the ability to slip over into the debtor’s ethic, the reality is that grace soon fails to be grace at all. If we begin to perceive that we can repay God for His grace in the manner we repay our creditors, this very grace we are indebted by would be a mute point-for it would not be grace at all.
Yet, the greatest problem with such misunderstanding of grace is that it runs the risk of minimizing the glory of grace by its limited past-orientation. Repayment looks back. Which is not in itself a bad thing. It is a great discipline to remember the past grace of God. But we do not live in the past. None of our future obedience and future faith can happen in the past. The past is the past. Our entire life will be lived in the future. Therefore, when we try to force our acts of repayment to empower future obedience, something goes way wrong. Especially when we consider ourselves now to be unable to repay at all. We become stuck. Our acts of faith and obedience are paralyzed in the false belief that our credited grace has been exhausted.
Such is the basis for shame: shame is the painful emotion and paralyzing reality that is caused by a consciousness of guilt, shortcoming or impropriety. The pain is caused not merely by our own failures but by the awareness that others see them as well.

I Despise Shame-Roots for Being Unashamed

When shame began to threaten the heart of Christ and tempted Him to abandon a clear and obedient call to God and to the gospel, Christ looked shame in the face and said, "Shame, I despise you! I will not give in to your taunting tactics and conniving ways! I will not find temporary satisfaction in you, nor burden my soul more by satisfying your evil desires. I despise you shame, and will not let you ruin me!"
Shame was stripping away every earthly support Christ had: His friends gave way in shaming abandonment, His reputation was lost in shaming slander, His decency gave way to shaming nakedness, His comfort gave way to shaming torture. Though Christ was being shamed, rooted deep within His soul was the power of Unashamedness.
"I am UNASHAMED of the gospel..." But why? Because. In spite of all those who mock me, despite all those who atempt to bring me down, despite all my past failures and the mocking voices that will not let them go, despite all the guilt of falling short daily, despite all these things-this message of Christ' crucified for the sake of sinners like me, of Christ raised from the dead as the Son of God in power, of grace given to those who will trust in His Name-this message will bring everlasting salvation to all who bank on it. And such will grow deep the roots of unashamedness.