What I Know About Shame.

Let me tell you a thing or two about shame.

Shame will crack it's knuckles and reach for your throat, threatening to steal every essence of life in your body.  It will kick you while you're down, taunt you while you sleep, and harass you while you just try to make it out alive.  

Shame shows no mercy.

If you let it, shame will swallow you whole.  You'll tuck happiness away until you feel worthy of truly letting it seep into your bones.  You'll fight for bravery because it will mean that you're not a lost cause, that there's still some good left in you.

Shame can ruin you.  

But it doesn't have to.

This is a place of decision, for me and for you.  We can give God permission to only redeem some of our fear and some of our past, or we can surrender it all.   

Can we be honest?  Sometimes we just get comfortable in our messes.  I don't want to be broken.  I don't want the shame.  I don't want the guilt.  I don't want the inability to forgive myself.  Yet I have such a difficult time releasing those things to the grip of mercy that my Heavenly Father extends towards me.  

What if I give Him my shame and let Him redeem my past and still, underneath all of the junk I have hidden under for the last several years, I am no good?  What if my mistakes aren't bad; what if it's just me?

But, friends, I've discovered something else about shame: it lies.  It lies about who we are, Who we belong to, and how great His love is for us.  

I didn't come this far to give up now.  I didn't dive into the deep end only to get to this point and search for shallow waters again.  It's tough and it hurts and it's so scary that my stomach remains in knots, but it's time to take off my shame and lay it at the feet of Jesus where it has always belonged.

I am shedding years of guilt, of hidden insecurities, of distrusting myself and others and hiding in all of it.

Maybe it's time that you do the same.

Let's ditch shame together.  How can I pray for you, friends?

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Memories don't make us who we are.  There's a silver lining in every scar.

Everything's forgiven.  Forgetting's up to you.

--

"Carry On, San Vicente" // Dave Barnes