Shame

“God is as close to my shame as this shawl is to my shoulders.” Lauren Winner

Shame.  We don’t really think about it too often, unless we have experienced trauma of some sort.  But shame is always there, hiding beneath the surface.  But God is also there, closer to our shame than we think. 

When Adam and Eve first sinned, shame entered into the story.  And you know what God did? He covered their shame.  In the book, “Wearing God” by Lauren Winner she describes how God may have tenderly dealt with Adam and Eve before they had to leave the garden.  She says, “While I feel cloaked with shame, God is tenderly stitching me a suit of clothes.  The clothing is God’s own self.”

God enters into our shame and covers it with Himself.  He doesn’t want us to stay in hiding. 

I’m sure there are areas in all of our lives where shame is lurking.  Mostly they are areas we would rather keep in hiding, better left unsaid, rarely or never to discuss.  When we talk about these areas, we feel embarrassed…like someone has found us out. 

Our own bodies carry so much shame.  Most of us are not content in the bodies that we inhabit; always thinking how we can cover them, lose weight, and hide the blemishes.  How difficult it is to accept our own bodies when shame is lurking there. 

So, what do we do?  I think first we have to acknowledge where there is shame in our lives.  We have to come to terms with it.  Maybe even talk about it.   Then we have to invite God into it, and ask that He would cover our shame with His Love.

This may free us from always having to hide beneath the fig leaves, and instead turn to God who is in our corner, tenderly stitching our clothes. 

The Great Reconciler!

Mary Oliver states, “If you are too much like myself, what shall I learn of you, or you of me?

Diversity is a gift, but it is also a challenge.  It’s a gift when we stand open-hearted to hear and receive from each other.  It’s a challenge when we take a judgmental, defensive posture; Judgmental because I don’t understand where you are coming from; defensive because your views are different from mine.  Judgment and Personal Defense never gets us very far.  Relationship does. When we take a posture in willingness to listen and learn, than true reconciliation is born.

Repentance is also needed, because there is such a great barrier that exists between gender, ethnicity and religious orientation. It’s truly a journey, but there is always hope because Jesus made a way for us at the Cross.  There is always level ground at the Cross.  We lay down our pretenses, our labels, and our false accusations.

At the Cross there is true repentance, healing and reconciliation.  But we must journey to the Cross together, and let the Life and Death of Jesus speak to us; His pain born in ours, His loss, His grief born in ours.  Only Jesus is the Great reconciler that we long for.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Let Jesus become our message of reconciliation; the one who tears down the barriers and the dividing walls of hostility. Ephesians 2:14 And brings us true peace…

The Power of Who You Are!

“Jesus did not call perfect people to join him in his ministry.  None of us is faultless. A huge amount of work in our world begs to be done with an attitude of care.  Let us go to be of service to others with our strengths and our limitations, trusting that God will take the best of who we are and bless others with it.”  Joyce Rupp

Wherever we go, whatever we do, we will accomplish God given tasks in the power of Who We Are. 

“It’s not by might.  It’s not by power.  It’s my Spirit says the Lord.”  Zechariah 4:6

God anoints Who We Are to accomplish the given tasks at hand.  We cannot be anyone or anything else other than Who We Are.  And God can use all of us- our greatest assets and our greatest weaknesses, Our God given gifts and our God given quirkiness; all of us is Holy ground to the Lord.  He consecrates us by the blood and by the marriage of Word and Spirit. 

Like the old Gospel Song says, “If you can use anything Lord, you can use me.”

It’s who you are that blesses people.  Some people will like you, and some people won’t, but that doesn’t change your blessedness and belovedness to God; Stay in it.  Stay in the Story and watch God act on your behalf.  So often the people we don’t like and the people who don’t like us-we just need to connect to them in some way; when you connect to others than the walls and defenses come down.  Pray for more connection.  Sometimes it takes awhile.  Jealously may need to be confessed to God. 

It’s Who We Are that we carry into the world.  God uniquely created you.  God uniquely created me.  “He is the potter.  We are the clay.” Jeremiah 18:6

We have to trust the potter.  We have to trust His unique design.  Ask God to give you eyes to see yourself as He sees you; the beauty and the scars.  Sometimes it’s the scars that make us unique.

Don’t just hide them- in time reveal them and watch God use them in a way that draws others to Him.

The truth of Who You Are is what speaks loud and clear to others.  God will reveal himself through you- imperfect, flawed, beautiful you. 

The question is, Will you let him?  Will you let him carry you out into this thirsty world in the power of Who you are and bless it beyond reason!

Hope Deferred

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”  Proverbs 13:12

Remember when you were in high school waiting to hear back from colleges that accepted you and colleges that denied you?  And even worse, colleges that deferred you to a later date.  What?  After I have waited for such a long time!  I remember I heard it through the grapevine that if you got a heavy envelope it was an acceptance, and if you got a light envelope it was a denial.  I’m sure some of us suffered a great disappointment because we didn’t get into our first choice, and maybe we even had to choose a “Safety School." Remember those?  Schools that you didn’t really want to go to, but you knew that you be accepted into. 

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”  It’s hard to wait a long time to get a “No” answer.  Especially when we feel that a “Yes” would be the answer to solve all our problems, and fulfill all our earthly dreams. Though, it rarely works that way.  Reality hits, no matter what choice you make there will be challenges, a cutting edge of growth, and fantastic benefits-that outweigh the cost!

This is life! This is story!

But what about, “A longing fulfilled is a tree of life?”  Where is that tree?  Last time we saw the “Tree of Life” Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and they messed up royally!  Yet, God clothed them and sent them out together.   “A longing fulfilled” makes me think of relationship.  Remember in college we met some amazing friends that God gave us to walk alongside us for the ups and downs of college life.  And today at our jobs, in our families, in our marriages God has given us people who really like us, some who really love us and want to see us rise to the occasion; fulfilled, happy, and full of life. 

I know it’s really hard to be deferred.  It’s discouraging.  It’s disappointing.  We begin to lose heart.  But can you believe that God- who opens doors, closes doors, too?  And what He wants to do in and through you is beyond any “Safety School” or “First choice!”

Cutting edge of growth awaits you!  Fantastic Benefits!  Challenges that you can meet head on!  And relationships that will sustain you as a Tree of Life!

The Broken Road

I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you
That every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms

This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

Broken Road-Rascal Flatts

More than anything our brokenness draws us to God's heart. “God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.” Psalm 46:1 The Message.

How many times, how many trials, and tribulations that we find we are on our knees crying out to God to meet us there. 

He answers our prayers often on the broken road with a word, a song; a memory that comes to us as if God were speaking to us- ready to lift us up out of our pit. Psalm 40:2

For God doesn’t just leave us on the broken road-He blesses us when our hearts rise up to meet his.   

There is an old Irish Blessing that states:

May the road rise to meet you,
may the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and the rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God hold you in the palm of His hand and bless you-for brokenness can be a gift when it points you to God.

This much I know is true.  That God blessed the broken road that pointed Him to you..

More for you...

Andrew Comiskey, founder of Desert Stream Ministry tells a story of coming out as a homosexual to his mother.  He said, that she told him- “I wish for more for you…”  This always stayed with him.

I think this phrase, “I wish for more for you” could be uttered by parents, siblings, friends, spouses, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  Anyone we love and we see struggling with anything from anger,  to addiction, to poverty, to disease, or any type of familial strife- our hearts go out to them and we truly “wish for more” for them.

This also hits home in areas where we personally struggle, and hope for wholeness and healing.  Depression is like a wave that knocks you down.  The challenge is to get up-hit the surf again-catch the next wave and ride!

The good news is God wants “The More” for us.  He wants us to see better days inwardly and outwardly.  He wants us to know “He’s the source of our strength.  He’s the strength of our life. We can lift our hands in total praise to Him!” (Richard Smallwood-Total Praise)

A Very Great Reward!

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your very great reward.” Genesis 15:1

There is a beautiful song that sings, “Thou oh Lord, are a shield about me.  You’re my glory and the lifter of my head…”

In Abraham’s case he was childless, but God said, “Lift up your head, Abram and count the stars-if indeed you can count them.  Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.”  Genesis 15:5    

Where there is a lack in our life-God fills the void with a promise.  So often, we mope around, with our heads hung down so focused on what we don’t have.  But God wants to turn those few loaves into enough to feed the multitudes.  We have to stop focusing on the small voids in our lives, and trust God that He can fulfill a promise for us that is exceedingly abundantly more than we could have asked or imagined. 

Abraham never could have imagined that he would be called, “The Father of many nations.”

“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.  No longer will you be called Abram; your name with be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.  I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.”  Genesis 17:4

If Abraham had stayed focused on the little thing, He would have missed the great blessing God had planned for him. 

So often in Abraham’s journey he didn’t know what he was doing! He just took God at His Word, and with every small test of faith, God enlarged His territory and it enabled him to receive the fullness of blessing that God had prepared in advance for Him. 

Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you. 

Through it all, through it all, it is well!

(It is Well, Bethel Music)

“Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6

But, Yet God in His sovereignty always takes it to another level.  He doesn’t want us to focus on our little voids, or even on the great promise.  He wants us to know in the end-He in the fullness of His Love is what we are truly seeking.  For only He is our very great reward!