There's a message that is being fed to all of us, every day. Its so subtle you can hardly hear it whispering above the roar of life.  It comes from ever direction, the media, Facebook, friends, books, church. It's a voice that says, you aren't good enough.                                                                    
I don't believe that God created us to walk around with a never ending feeling of shame and guilt. Yet we constantly fall short and compare ourselves to others, imagining they have it all figured out. We were created to have freedom, light,  love, truth,  and peace, but in the midst of today's chaotic world, we often feel anything but that.

  The remedy for wrong actions, or things we perceive to be wrong with our own selves, is not to bring more shame and judgement into an already judgmental world.  The approach  of shaming and judging will never work to bring people out of their darkness, or to correct their behavior. 

The media regularly shames people. We log onto Facebook, and there's a politically charged post that makes us feel bad. We go to work and don't perform well enough for our boss. We stay at home as mothers, and feel like we have to do a Pinterest craft, while cooking gourmet meals, and taking care of our kids.  We might have personal issues going on..Shame over our bodies,  our race,  our income level, our mental health, our family..the list goes on. Shame never brings healing, but love does. "Love covers a multitude of sins".

 Condemnation tells people they will never be right, and leads them to give up trying.  I don't believe God ever expected us to get it right in the first place. Looking to our own fragile human imperfections, without the knowledge that Jesus lived perfectly for us, can set us up for failure. It leaves us in a perpetual state of striving.

 Love sees past the ugly and deplorable, the imperfect, and instead chooses to see the heart. This does not mean we ignore actions that are wrong or deplorable, even in our own selves. But we need to learn to accept our own imperfections, along with others. I find when I am most compassionate towards myself, I am more of that to others, otherwise how can we "Love our neighbors" as we "Love ourselves"?

The subject of shame and condemnation is an important one, because if we feel that way towards ourselves, we will impose that same sense of shame on others. This leads to a an environment of fear, judgement, suspicion, worry, and ultimately self-righteousness. 

For some of us, when we think of God, all we can think of is that He is inapproachable. We don't feel like we can ever face an all powerful being, because we have nothing to offer. Most of us walk around with a sense of deep seated shame or guilt. 

 Some of us have experienced very little grace or love in our lives, and know nothing different, and we think we deserve nothing less then to be judged anyway- so what's the point of proving anyone wrong? God's solution to this was to introduce pure love to the world, through the person of Jesus Christ.  Love came and said, you will never be perfect, but that's okay. You are flawed, but don't be afraid. Accepting that we are flawed and imperfect is the first step in receiving God.

 

    

"For if our heart condemns us, how much greater is God than our heart? And he knows all things." (1 John 3:20)