I heard a story as a child of a Mafia Don. He was offering " protection " to several businesses in the city but was having trouble with his collections as the local police would pick up his collectors and easily get the information from them regarding the payments and the whereabouts of the money. After much deliberation, he decided to hire a deaf mute named Tony to pick up the cash from the various businesses. His thinking was that if Tony were ever picked up by the police, they would have a difficult time extracting information from him. So Tony began picking up the payments for the Mafia Don from the numerous businesses he was extorting. Day after day, Tony made his rounds. At the end of the first week, as Tony was preparing to take the money to the Don, he counted the cash and discovered he was holding over half a million dollars. Feeling greedy, he hid the money where only he could find it and began to plan his getaway. But the Don, becoming nervous when Tony had been late in delivering the money, had sent his henchmen to find him. They quickly located him and brought him to the Mafia Don. The Don summoned an interpreter from his gang and had him sign to Tony," Where is my money?". Tony signed back," What money?". The interpreter told the Don, " He says 'what money?'". The Don pulled a pistol from his jacket, pointed it and shot a vase sitting inches from Tonys head. He then put the pistol in Tony's ear and told the interpreter, " Ask him again". Again, the interpreter signed to Tony, " Wheres the money?". Quickly, Tony's hands began to fly through the air. " The money is hidden in Central park 100 paces from the big oak tree at the northern entrance. There you will find a rose bush. Behind it are three rocks pointing east. Walk 10 paces to a large metal garbage can and lift it. The money is buried there in a small canvas backpack". With that, Tony's hands fell into his lap and he slumped in his chair. The interpreter paused for a moment, turned towards the Don and told him, " He says you don't have the guts to pull that trigger"....
While this story never fails to elicit chuckles, it demonstrates a larger point. A lie believed is as powerful as the truth. So many of us live out our days believing lies that steal the fullness of joy promised in Jesus. Many of these untruths are spoken in the tapes that replay within our own heads. For many of us, it is our past failures that haunt our thoughts and speak a lie into our lives. For others of us, it is our present pain that becomes our focus. As the tape in your head plays on and on, nothing less than your very self-identity is at stake. You see, the question at hand is this; Are you a product of your sins, your failures, your pains? Do they define who you are? Or... Are are you something much, much greater?
Many of us live our lives imprisoned by shame and guilt; shame over the the things we have done and the things done to us, guilt over our inability to be who we want to be. If left unchecked, our guilt slowly becomes our identity, and we die slowly and privately, shackled by our shame. But to hide our shame is to embrace a lie. Shame over a behavior is a call to repent. Romans 6:14 tells us that "Sin shall not be master over you". Hiding our shame is to believe that the grace God promises, while available to others, is not sufficient to redeem our sin.
Tragically, there is another type of shame too many of us carry around. It is a burden not of our own making. It is the shame of the victim, it is false shame. Those wounded by the actions of others are in their own battle for their identity as their self-worth is distorted by the lie, that they are what has been done to them. The abandoned spouse, the abused child, they often keep their pain secret. But it keeps them from genuine relationships as they live without a true sense of who they are in Christ.
BUT...You are not what you have done nor what others have done to you. God doesn't love you because you deserve it. Nor does He love you because its just what He does. He loves you because its who He is. And because of that, we can take our shame and guilt, without fear, and lay them at the cross. But many of us have lived with shame or guilt for so long that removing it leaves us struggling to know who we are apart from it. Well, let me summarize....
You are wonderfully and fearfully made. You are His masterpiece, a poem. He sings over you, a child of the living God. You are a light on a hill , salt to the earth. You are saved through the limitless love of God! You are a new creation( 2 Cor. 5:17)
We are not imprisoned, we are empowered to break down every stronghold whether they be past pains or present addictions.
" For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heighth, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God!"- Romans 8:38
“The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go Gods love for us does not.”
- C.S. Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment