God and Shame

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There’s a story that I’ve been told again and again. It’s simply this, Jesus takes on all our shame through his death on the cross. Sin and shame are synonyms. And yet, so often, we turn that around and make the whole Christian endeavor about feeling more shame, about burdening ourselves with shamefulness disguised as humility or worse, love.

Now, please understand. Shame is an emotion just like any other and it has something to teach us. Yes. And, it is a sticky, goopy kind of thing that grows by an order of magnitude (West Wing reference) if we’re not careful. It can become, as my Mean Therapist says, a second personality. We can mistake our Shame for our Self. Ain’ that a kick in the head?

The whole Shame Spiral is something we learn along the way. We learn it from a variety of potential sources. Religion is effective. Public Education is another. So too are sports, the arts, and the Boy Scouts. Sometimes we learn it through traumas. If that is you, please reach out when you feel overwhelmed. That’s nothing to treat lightly.

Back to Jesus, the cross, and why the cross alleviates shame.

Victory over Death. Again, it’s a simple tale that is hard to live. Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection (That’s the offensive part.), shows us that death is not the final answer. There’s more life than there is death, light overcomes darkness (In Him there is no darkness at all…). Shame, when it becomes that pesky second personality, is a form of death. Cue: Zombie by the Cranberries.

I share this because I am often the walking dead. It’s a nasty habit. And I need to trust that God has done God’s part in alleviating shame. It is I who cling to it. That’s the Mean Therapist’s challenge to me: convince her that clinging to it is beneficial. Somehow, I get something from it. I have thoughts, but that’s the heart of the issue. I get something from Shame. God help me.

Theologically trained, Tripp Hudgins teaches middle school in Virginia and is a novice in the Third Order of Saint Francis. This post is republished from his blog, "The Lo-Fi Gospel Minute," on Substack