Shame is a profoundly dominant force in this world. Think how many times you compromised your character because you were ashamed of what you actually felt or wanted to do or say. Shame drives us to cover up who we really are for fear that if our true self was discovered we would be deemed inadequate. Shame, in it's essence, is the very passageway through which this fear enters our lives.
Some guys just love being naked. They find it freeing, comical, or just an excuse to exercise their masculinity. I'm not sure if women truly revel in these moments of nudity as men do, but I can only hope (kidding). I've found that these recreational nudists are the minority of men, or at least American men. Being naked is a necessary requirement for only certain activities in life and it is never sought after otherwise. However, it seems like there was the intention at the origin of our creation to truly enjoy our nakedness, rather we weren't even supposed to know we were naked. In Genesis we find that man created the first article of clothing, not God. It was out of shame (Gen 3:7) that we hid our bodies from one another.
I see a lot of people get teased or constantly made fun of for being "sheltered". Like I've said many times before in previous blogs, I'm no advocate for ignorance. However, I just can't help but think sometimes that knowledge is not always power. In Genesis we read that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The phrase that scripture uses to describe what happens after they eat of the tree's fruit is "their eyes were opened" (Gen 3:5, 7). It would seem as though God, in a manner of speaking, purposefully hid things from their sight knowing full well that, due to our human nature, our psyche would be crushed by certain knowledge about ourselves and this world. You could say that God purposefully sheltered us.
We live in a society that offers unlimited knowledge. You can google information to your heart's content on any subject and become an expert on a limitless amount of topics from human sexuality to rocket science. We've downloaded so much information that we've started to ignore God because our answers sound so much better than His answers. We've started to promote lifestyles and values that completely contradict what God intended for us. In doing so, it seems as though we've found a way to surpass shame. This is a paradox which I hope I can aptly explain.
Think of an abusive father who dominates a child's life with cruel words, harsh restrictions, and possibly even physical violence. When that child grows up and finally escapes that abuse, he (pardon my gender specific use of "he", know that I imply he/she) will most certainly seek to live a life contrary to that of his abusive father. He will treasure his freedom and unlimited potential to be something different than his father. However, he will undoubtedly be filled with anger and bitterness towards his father for the rest of his life (should he not seek forgiveness). While it may feel as though he is free from the abusive parental control he experienced throughout his childhood, he will indeed still be under the control of his father as long as anger and bitterness towards him are alive in his soul. The very deep seeded anguish which motivates him to move further and further away from his father is, in reality, a continual force dragging him back into that home of iniquity. Although his father is not physically present he is indeed spiritually present, and thus his father still dictates his every action. Now, imagine this scenario projected onto shame in our society.
Shame is present because we sinned, and we've been trying to escape it ever since. At first we just created clothes out of fig leaves. Now we have parades and political organizations. We became so dominated by our inability to escape the soul-shredding guilt caused by our shame that we in turn started to use reverse psychology on ourselves by celebrating the actions that once caused us to feel ashamed. I have no doubt that deep down these actions still cause us to feel ashamed, now it's just there's no shortage of people to rally around us and support us in our shameful ways. Shame is the abusive father we grew up with and now hopelessly pretend to be free from.
I know this all may seem somewhat contradictory as shame initially made us insecure about something we should have never been insecure about, i.e. being naked. A Christ follower understands that shame can be both a tool for correction when it comes from God and a tool for destruction when it comes from Satan. God wants us to feel ashamed when we are not who He has made us to be, while Satan wants us to be ashamed when we are who God has made us to be. What makes Christians different is that we've chosen not to let that shame control our lives and instead let the abounding love and grace of God wash it away. Everyone else is just fighting to repress their shame not knowing that it's like quicksand; they can keep struggling to escape, but without accepting the helping hand of Christ to pull them out, there is no hope.
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