How to Toss off Shame-An Exercise.

Shame can be subtle and suffocating. Often tiny hidden incidents become the bricks erecting towering walls of shame barricading us from freedom.

Let’s begin dismantling shame brick by nefarious brick.

The Exercise-Part 1

All right, let’s visualize here.

First, think of one of your faults-big or small. Or something done to you that is hard to forgive-big or small.

For example: The mean words or tones I use with my kids. Or being put on a diet as a child. Ask God to help you think of something.

Next, picture the cross scene.

I tend to visualize a blur of swirling dark water colors. The sky, menacing. Air is thick and suffocating with fog, pulsing with electricity. Low rumbles of thunder echo through onlookers’ hearts. A cross constructed of distressed splintery wood perches at the crest of a barren, dusty hill. Jesus’ slight and mangled body hangs in anguish. Gloppy swirls of grey and crimson compose his shape.

Breath is caught in my throat. I want to look away. Instead, I force myself to look at His pain.

Look with me.

I want to feel guilty for His pain and beat myself up for doing this to Him. Maybe even run up to the cross and remove Him from the horror, nursing His wounds. But that misses the point. This horrifying scene is our freedom.

Connect with it. See Him hanging there. Maybe you feel like thanking Him or worshiping Him. Take your time here.

Remember this moment. This gruesome scene is part of the solution to our shame. This is the crossroad to our freedom.

Remember that sin from the beginning of the exercise? Take that fault out of hiding. Hold it in your hands.

Next, package up your fault in a box or squish it into a ball. Gingerly place it, or hurl that sucker at the foot of Jesus’s cross. Whatever it takes to transfer it.

We may ask ourselves, how could I participate in this horror? I don’t want to add to it. Our instinct may be to heap added guilt and shame on ourselves for putting Jesus here. I gravitate toward that. We must resist it. That shame needs to be left with Him there too.

The cross is not our choice. This is God’s plan to liberate us.

This place is not the end. The cross is just the beginning.

Part 2

Now, walk beyond that scene.

Light beams through the clouds like fingers beckoning you on.  You squint at the brightness. Blinking a few times, you adjust your eyes. Warm breezes tickle your skin. Grass glitters with dew. You inhale slowly, savoring the fresh scents of lilacs and lilies.

Jesus, eyes sparkling, gazes in your direction. You feel like the only one in the scene.  He doesn’t speak, but you hear His invitation in your heart.

C’mon, this is going to be a blast. I have you. I will make you. I won’t leave you. I will love you forever.

What if I mess up? You question without words.

You will, and its ok. I’m already there. Will you trust me?

You begin measuring in your heart. I don’t have much to gi…

I’ll take it!

His Song Over You

Song of Solomon 2: 10-13 (The Passion Translation)

The one I love calls to me:

Arise my dearest. Hurry my darling.

Come along with me!

I have come as you have asked

to draw you to My heart and lead you out.

For now is the time, my beautiful one.

The season has changed,

the bondage of your barren winter has ended,

the season of hiding is over and gone.

The rains have soaked the earth

and left it bright with blossoming flowers.

The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived.

I hear the cooing of doves in our land,

filling the air with songs to awaken you

and guide you forth.

Can you not discern this new day of destiny

breaking forth around you?

The early signs of my purposes and plans

are bursting forth.

The budding vines of new life

are now blooming everywhere.

The fragrance of their flowers whispers:

“There is change in the air.”

Arise, my love, my beautiful companion,

and rise with me to the higher place.

For now is the time to arise and come away with me.

Revisit this exercise when shame tries to creep in. Shame is not our destiny. Our fears, faults, and sin can be dumped in the cross scene.

Drop them all off on your way to the higher place with Jesus. He is calling us today.

Come away with Me, Beautiful One.