Shame on you, Shame.

Okay, so kind of a serious post, but I am blogging, and this is what I've been thinking about.

So I've been exploring a past PTSD experience I had while in Zambia during my current sessions with my counselor.  I realized that I had attached shame to part of the near-car-jacking event.  Because I felt shame, I didn't admit to myself or those around me that I needed help.  I hid.  This has lead me to think a lot about the nature of shame and why we do the opposite of what we most desperately need.  Shame tells us to flee from relationship, the thing that can most readily help to remove our shame.  Shame makes all our fears flare up.  Shame keeps us from freely expressing who we are created to be.  Shame keeps us from interacting freely with God as well.

When people talk about how Satan attacks Westerners, they say it's in the sins you can't see.  I think this is true.  I also think the root of that sin is bound up in shame.  We are not who God says we are.  We are too marred to be loved by Him and others.  We believe we will find rejection if we disclose our shame, where we will more than likely find mercy.

We weren't created to hide.  We weren't created to have to hold back who we are.  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Shame is a lie.  Shame on you, Shame.