Whenever we perceive ourselves (and/or others) as anything less than a marvelous, beautiful work of art – a masterpiece – that perception is a deception.
“I (you, they) am worthless!”
“I (you, they) am despicable, a disgrace.
“I (you, they) am a failure.”
Has shame deceived you? Whenever we live in shame, it is impossible to perceive our (and/or others) essence, our personhood, our identity as separate from our behaviors, attitudes, thoughts, and feelings.
When I asked my husband, Phil, if he had purchased a new dog bowl because the one he had in his hand was so shiny that it sparkled. He said, “No. This is the same one; I cleaned it.”
Have you ever wanted to discard something because it was so dirty you could no longer perceive its true beauty and declare it as worthless? More importantly, do you discard yourself (and/or others) because all you perceive is your dirt and declare, “I am (you/they) worthless?”
To Peter in Acts 10:15, God said, “You must stop calling unclean what God has made clean.”
Phil, knowing what was underneath that dirt, made the dog bowl sparkle, revealing its true identity. God, knowing what is underneath that dirt that hides us (and others) makes us sparkle as well, revealing our true identity. With God’s help, let’s not let shame deceive us into believing that we are simply the dirt that we so easily see! Blessed with the perception of what’s underneath our own grime – a magnificent masterpiece – we begin the journey to live that out: We begin to live congruently with who we truly are. We begin to deeply love ourselves. As that happens, we begin to deeply love others. Walls of resentment disappear, replaced by healthy boundaries because we know that underneath a person’s most despicable and evil behaviors, thoughts and words is a magnificent masterpiece.
