One of the biggest challenges for folks who see God through the eyes of shame is the inability to see that God is truly for us. “Yes, I know God loves me BUT…” “Yes, it is all grace by faith in Jesus BUT…” This can be a real handicap as the One who can truly heal us and set us free is the One we mistakenly think has it out for us, the One who hates us until we can get our poop in a group. The reality is this misshaped piety only isolates us and drives us deeper into a Christianized form of works righteous. The kind of work that produces toil and not the rest of the Sabbath.
The following is an excerpt from my book Becoming Love. Avoiding Common Forms of Christian Insanity. When we remove the lenses of shame, we can see that sin is something that needs to be cured, not punished, as some suggest. To be whole, we need that which only God can do and has done in His Son Jesus – once and for all! The love paradigm stops the craziness of running in the opposite direction of the blessing that is to overtake us!
An excerpt:
At the age of two I began to shake. I developed a physical tremor and I have lived with it for over forty years. Along with a constant shaking I sometimes spasm (especially in my hands). The doctors have determined it is a genetic issue I share with my mother, grandfather and aunt and there is nothing I can do about it, no drug or treatment. As such I have resigned myself to the fact I will never perform brain surgery or vasectomies, or anything else which requires precise, steady movements. This makes carrying hot coffee a little tricky, as I have to be careful not to spill. I fill cups well below the brim, and I ask the good folks at Starbucks to put the lid on my travel mug for me. I have learned to compensate but I have also grown used to being embarrassed by shaking coffee all over the floor, or spilling soup on my shirt. I find once people understand I am not a careless pig but really quite incapable of fine motor control, they afford me great grace and are compassionate even when one of my spasms creates more work for them. If people are this generous to me as a result of a condition, how much more generous is God who knows we are helpless on our own to “get our act together!”