Embracing Grace: Overcoming Shame Through Small Steps

I was thinking about how deeply shame weighs on human life. There's a story in the Bible in Genesis in the third chapter about how Adam and Eve who initially were made to live with no shame they were naked they were vulnerable they were fully known but they were not ashamed. [00:16:00]

And then came the fall and they chose to push God out of their lives like we all do and they knew shame and so they hid and that's what we all do. And there's a very poignant verse at the end of that passage in Genesis 3 where it says and God put cherubim set cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. [00:18:39]

And the glory of the Lord Shone round about them now, I think about those those cherubim uh Angels who had to guard the way whatever that means whatever spirituality whatever spiritual reality that that's communicating and now there's an angel who comes with not a flashing light but Glory that shines. [00:43:57]

He can take away what you cannot remove, he can heal the wound that would otherwise be fatal to you, and this would be a sign you'll find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a Manger now Shepherds were kind of at the low end of the status ladder. [00:50:57]

And so they were people that would have a keen sense of inadequacy it'd be a little like if you're a Shepherd you were told you know uh go to the white house uh because the president uh wrote the the executive families just had a baby or something you'd never get in. [00:53:36]

He does it to a man that had been paralyzed for 38 years and then when the man is healed Jesus says to him pick up your mat, make your bed, and then later on in the book of Acts after Jesus is resurrected in ascends into heaven Peter is able through the name of Jesus to bring healing. [01:13:40]

Grace is power, and it leads us to get up off of the very small world of our mat and to begin to do things usually with real small steps things that don't look terribly significant there was a book it ended up becoming a number one bestsell in the New York Times. [01:24:59]

And it was based on a commencement speech by Admiral mcraven he talked about when he was a Navy SEAL when you wake up in the morning the first thing you do is get out of bed and then you make your bed, and he said it sounds like such a trivial small thing but he came to recognize. [01:27:00]

Over time that it was a really good thing to learn how to do that they would inspect that every day because you would recognize if I do this one small thing and it gives me a little sense of accomplishment that I can do the next small thing and then I can do the next small thing. [01:29:00]

And one by one as I walk through the day it will be a life of good small things that I can do and you and I can do that together with God and he said part of what that teaches us is the value of small things that little things matter, and that's not just a cliche. [01:31:00]

That's the Incarnation, little things matter because God created all things including little things and lowly people and small acts of good and God inhabits them the message of the manger is God inhabits small things he is there and then Admiral mcraven says if by chance you have a miserable day. [01:33:00]

At least when you come home at night you will come home to a maid bed, and it will be a little reminder that perhaps tomorrow will be a better day, so today you do not live in shame you don't live in guilt you don't live in pain those may come to you you may I may need to learn from them. [01:35:00]