Last year’s second quarter Epistle contained an article examining the sentiment “you are enough,” which reverberates in contemporary culture. The article suggested that this phrase “…repeats as if we are trying to stir ourselves from a dream from which we cannot wake. It is like we are trying to persuade ourselves of a reality we cannot accept.” Deep, hidden in the human soul, lies a wound desperately needing to be healed. It cannot be mended merely by supplying a contrasting narrative because it festers subterraneously in our senses, feelings, and imaginations. In other words, we cannot counter the sense that “we are not enough” by telling ourselves otherwise. This wound has been passed down from our first parents, Adam and Eve. When our progenitors sunk their teeth into the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened, and they experienced indignity for the first time. We have named it shame.
In the Soul of Shame, Dr. Curt Thompson defines shame as “an undercurrent of sensed emotion… that, should we put words to it, would declare some version of I am not enough….”¹ Dr. Thompson’s writing is full of deep insights and practical wisdom from his formal training, extensive psychiatric experience, and commitment to following Christ. While his understanding of the psychological and social experiences of shame is fascinating, the most compelling aspect of the book lies in his interpretation of humanity’s fall viewed through the lens of shame. With incisive, surgeon-like precision, Thompson dissects Genesis 3, proposing that when the serpent tempted Eve, he not only introduced doubt about the facts regarding what God had said, but he also injected doubt into Adam and Eve’s relationship with God. In Thompson’s words, the shrewd tempter intimated, “[God] does not want you to be as close and as connected to him as you might think he does. And by further implication, therefore, you are not as important as you think. You, as it turns out, are less than you think. You. Are. Not. Enough.”
Humanity’s wound is laid bare. When sin burst onto the world’s stage, it held the door for shame. The scourge of shame left Adam and Eve feeling exposed and vulnerable, so they covered themselves and hid from God. In one of the most breathtaking and soul-wrenching images in Scripture, God seeks out His lost children calling, “Where are you?” Just as the tempter had desired, human sin had ruptured man’s relationship with God, which is precisely why God sent His only Son, Jesus. Jesus not only restored our relationship through the forgiveness of sins, but He also provided healing for our shame.
In the chapters that follow Thompson’s biblical interpretation, he demonstrates that the antidote to shame is vulnerability. At first, this seems counter-intuitive. When we experience shame, the instinctive response is to conceal, cover-up, or cut off. How could it be that vulnerability provides healing for this age-old wound? Again, Dr. Thompson roots his understanding in God, in whose image we are fashioned. The Scriptures reveal God as vulnerable in relationship to humanity. God opened Himself up to the pain of human rejection by placing the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the heart of the Garden of Eden. Even more, God’s vulnerability is prominently on display through the cross, where Jesus was wounded, rejected, and died to bring healing for sin. Vulnerability is God’s chosen instrument to heal human shame. To be seen, known, and loved as we are is the only way to cure the incessant sense that “you are not enough.”
by Pastor Brad Rogers
¹Curt Thompson, The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves (Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2015)
