It’s been a while since I posted anything faith based in a
blog, but a situation arose for a friend of mine that I think bears
addressing. I won’t get into all of her
story, if you know her then you probably already know the basics, but her story
is just that, her story. You want to
know, let her tell you if she deems you so worthy.
There was one particular comment during the whole thing that
caught my attention and it addressed sexuality and sin and, indirectly the
concept of shame and it got me thinking: What kind of being did God initially
intend us to be?
To better understand that, we need to look at what affects
occurred after the fall from grace.
Going to Genesis 3: 7-10 “7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God
as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the
Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man,
“Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid
because I was naked; so I hid.””
We get from this passage that the immediate negative effects
of disobey God is the introduction of sin into the world and with it
death. God didn’t intend for us to die,
that wasn’t in the blueprints, but it’s a result of the corruption that sin
brings. But death is a pretty far off
concept for Adam and Eve at this point, who live for several hundred years past
this event. No, the immediate result of
this action is the feeling of shame.
Shame is a very useful tool of evil minded people and
entities. Shame, guilt, regret are all
things that weigh us down as people, and if you are weighed down you can’t soar
to the heights God has prepared for you.
Think about it. Don’t you feel
heavier when you are replaying your most embarrassing moment in your head, when
you think about all the problems you’ve caused, all the strife going on in your
life? You do, there is an almost tangible
weight holding your heart down, like…chains.
The chains of guilt, shame, and regret are very real, but
they can be shed. This is one of the
points of Christ coming to Earth and walking among us, and why his actions are
still being talked about two thousand years later. His actions are an embodiment of what God
wants his relationship to be with us. To
understand that, you need to look at who Christ was among the most. He hung out with the…sinners. The people who society shackled with…wait for
it…shame, guilt, and regret. He did that
to shed them of these chains, to bring them to the heights God wants them to
ascend to.
At absolutely no point in the Bible does Christ expect his
followers to be perfect. In fact, its
their imperfections that he appreciates, because with your own issues comes and
understanding, an empathy with people who are dealing with similar issues. You know who make the best counselors? The people who have walked through the same
fires as you. God knows you are a work
in progress, because He’s the one doing the work. He’s bringing you to a point where He needs
you to be and its faith in Him that allows us to let Him do His work.
Regardless of what you have done or what you are going
through, He’s always with you and he wants you to shed those chains of shame
and guilt and regret. Does that mean you’re
going to suddenly be this perfect being?
Absolutely not. You are going to
stumble, and there will be opportunity for shame, guilt, and regret to come
back. That’s life. But you have to make a conscious choice to
let that weigh you down. When the world
looks at you and says “I’m going to spread your dirty laundry all over the
place.” You look back at it and say “Okay.” Because God already loves you for
who you are, and nothing the world says is going to change that, regardless of
your sin.
And let me cover one other thing before I close this
off: What exactly constitutes a major
sin? Did you break up a marriage? Did you cause someone to turn away from God? Did you kill someone? I don’t mean metaphorically, I mean actually
directly kill someone. Because I hear a
lot of people talking about how certain types of sexuality are sins and,
frankly Christ was remarkably quiet about that.
Yes the Old Testament talked a lot about how men should lay only with
women and so forth but that’s when Israel was a very small nation and you got
more Israelites by making babies. Back
then homosexuality was basically treason.
By the time Christ came around, this was not a problem and his ultimate
silence on the matter makes me believe that was probably no longer an
issue. He wasn't exactly subtle by saying "Love is the most important thing."
I think, as long as you aren’t
violating someone’s human rights or causing deep psychological (or physical)
scars you’re probably ok.
Anyway, hope that helps.
God bless.
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