These words point in the right direction, but some of them, such as embarrassed, insulted, different, and ignored, can fade with time. Real shame requires more intensity. That’s why the language of th...
These days, shame is emerging from the shadows and beginning to have its own identity. For example, if you talk about guilt to people under thirty, you often get blank stares. But if you talk about wo...
There are more subtle ways we can contribute to depression too. For example, our misguided beliefs might lead us to think that we are beyond God’s love or forgiveness. We could be carrying fears of de...
The first steps out of shame will be the hardest. These are the anti-denial steps in which we will put shame into words. You can’t do battle with something nameless, and too often shame eludes accurat...
The Holy One is not human. The triune God is not human. Don’t limit God’s character by your expectations of what a decent human king might do. You expect God to reject; he accepts. You expect him to t...
Shame is very much on display in Jesus’ crucifixion. When he predicted his own death to his disciples, he made sure to explain that it would be infused with mocking, a public flogging, and spitting (M...
Shame is life-dominating and stubborn. Once entrenched in your heart and mind, it is a squatter that refuses to leave.
Shame can be removed, and you can still be you. Despite your feeling that your destiny and shame’s destiny are identical—that if shame no longer exists, you won’t either—the reality is that you will b...
Scripture is about suffering. It has given comfort to millions. It has spawned hundreds of wonderful books that highlight God’s gentle care and Scripture’s probing insights. You can be assured of this...
People who have experienced war have learned to accept the trials and sufferings of life. Among many wise, older citizens in American society, there is no desperate flight from suffering. Instead, the...
Part of the depressive syndrome is that you are immensely loyal to your interpretation of yourself and your world. If God says you are forgiven in Christ, you create new rules that mandate contrition,...
On earth, however, God doesn’t prescribe a happy life. Look at some of the Psalms. They are written by people of great faith, yet they run the emotional gamut. One even ends with darkness is my closes...
Now listen more carefully to depression. Like all feelings, it is a kind of language. Guilt says, I am wrong. Anger says, You are wrong. Fear says, I am in danger. Depression, too, has a message, but...
Jesus always interpreted hardship in light of the end of the story, and at the end of the story we will be without shame.
It is one thing to die. It is another thing for an innocent person to die for a guilty one. It is something much more that Jesus would take on himself all the curses the world deserved in concentrated...
Holy means God cannot be compared to anyone else. He certainly cannot be likened to the worst person you know. He cannot even be compared to the best. His love and faithfulness endure forever.
Here is what we know and where we are going. First, shame is blended into our present human condition. That doesn’t mean that happiness and joy only come at the cost of massive denial. No, there can b...
But the point is that we live in a culture that idolizes happiness, and if we idolize happiness, it will always elude us.
Beneath our questions about God’s generosity and his care for our needs is something darker. What we really care about is our wants.
At this point, we know that worry and fear are more about us than about the things outside us. They