No Shame

Uh oh! I clamped my mouth shut.

While in a church service, I had suddenly awoke with my mouth wide open. Quickly looking around, I didn’t see anyone smiling at me. Guess I avoided embarrassment that time.

There have been other times when I didn’t avoid embarrassment: I’ve spoken when I didn’t know what I was talking about. I wrongly accused a friend of a misdeed. I angrily shouted at a child’s ball game. I forgot the name of a school friend. I loudly belched in a public restaurant.

Sometimes I could laugh off my embarrassment as human deficiency. Other times, I needed to apologize for hurtful words I had spoken or had to ask God’s forgiveness.

“Shame on you,” a mother told her child because of accidentally dropping a package at a store that broke open and made a mess. As humans, we try to use shame to control people and cover up our own mistakes. Pronouncing shame on another human is never acceptable.

Life is full of situations that we wish we hadn’t participated in, but the good news is — because of our faith in Jesus He does not shame us.

“For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 1 Peter 2:6 (NIV)

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