How do you plan on running through this life? Feeling guilty? Full of shame? Or free? Free to carry your cross.
Jesus gives us an example of how to run with endurance in this life. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame. It’s important to note that He didn’t endure the shame and despise the cross—as might be our inclination. We tend to despise life’s difficulties and endure the shame that results from them. But Jesus knew that shame was to be despised. His cross was to be endured. His cross—a life lived for the glory of God and the salvation of humankind—led to His sacred sacrifice in obedience to the Father. Only when He despised the shame was He able to obediently follow in the path God had planned. Shame had no place in the life of Christ, and it has no place in yours or mine. The danger of shame is its ability to trip us up, stop us short, and peck at our belief in the God who orders our days.
Shame is not our cross to bear. And because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, it never will be. Despite what we have done or may do, shame doesn’t have to be the shadow cast over every chapter of our stories. Many of us treat shame as the thorn in our flesh, to be accepted as part of who we are. But allowing shame to serve as punishment for what we have done is not, nor will it ever be, the way of the Father. Christ makes it clear with His own life that we are to endure difficulties but send shame on its way. Shame wasn’t the definitive end in His story, and it won’t be in ours, either.
Did you catch that Jesus didn’t merely shoo the shame of life away? He despised it. Some translations say that he “scorned” it. In other words, He had a no-tolerance policy for it. As women of faith, we can do the same. We can name shame for what it is, a tactic of the enemy of our souls. This could look like a lie we believe about ourselves, rejection that has eaten away at our understanding of God’s love for us, or even believing we are not enough simply because of who we are. The great news is we can ask the Lord to give us His perspective on our struggles and hurts. We can ask for help in enduring life’s trials while scorning shame. We can claim His joy and freedom in our imperfect lives of faith.
Adapted from the six-week Bible study Never Alone: 6 Encounters with Jesus to Heal Your Deepest Hurts, Tiffany Bluhm, Ó 2018 by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved.