No denying it - Shame is well and truly a growing part of the landscape of the 21st Century whether we recognise it or not - and its not a bad thing.
This past week Tim Challies had a great post on 'Shame, Fear and Guilt' and The Gospel Coalition featured the topic (although check the comments on honorshame.com re the TGC comments as to why in some ways, it was a bit disappointing).
In addition in the space of just over a month, three books have been released by three different Christian publishers with the same title of 'Unashamed'
1. Unashamed by Lecrae published by B&H on May 3rd
- the statement from his book that appears on reviews is : If you live for people's acceptance you will die from their rejection. How true!
2. Unashamed by Christine Caine (An Aussie!) published by Zondervan on May 10th
3. Unashamed by Heather Davis Nelson published by Crossway due for release on June 30
These are not books by Missionaries or Missiologists talking about the major issue of shame in far away lands. These are three books emerging from the Western Christian world.
The issue of shame is universal. It impacts individuals and societies to differing degrees and in various forms. But wherever we go, its there. And its permeating life in the Western World more and more. In fact it has been impacting lives since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden.
We may not have talked much about it in the past, but it didn't disappear just because we didn't talk about it. In fact, like so many things, when its not talked about and 'submerged', it doesn't weaken its grip, but instead it increases its power.
And now, it seems the lid has been lifted on what has been hidden, and people are feeling more free to talk about it.
The world has recognised that hiding shame isn't helpful, but it seems to think that to eliminate shame we should make what was shameful into what is shameless or blame others for shame - that's the only way those without any gospel light have with dealing with shame.
But the gospel brings good news for shame. As Ed Welch said in his book, it 'interupts shame'.
As Christians we have the opportunity to overcome shame.
In Christ we can share in the victory over shame and the controlling fear it can bring to our lives. In dealing with eternal shame in the eyes of God, Christ has also freed us from earthly shame's power to keep us held hostage.
Christ who bore our shame, covers our eternal shame. He became sin for us so that we could be declared righteous. He shamed (despised) the power of shame and became the means of restored honour as we stand 'in Him' before the Father, now as part of the Father's family.
These authors above have come to experience this victory in Christ over shame and its desire to destroy us, and now want to share their discoveries with others.
We would probably do well to read all the above books…..both for our own understanding of what it means to be freed from shame, but also as we desire to share the life-liberating gospel with those around us who are increasingly seeing life through the lens of shame.
Note: we are yet to read any of the above titles, so cannot categorically endorse all their content. Due to prior reading and other endorsements, our first pick would probably be the release from Crossway due at the end of June followed by the others.
