not merely broken...

we were having a discussion in one of my classes the other day that was quite fascinating. my professor was talking about how shame is good sometimes. one of my fellow students (one preparing to be a counselor no less), brought up that shame is a bad thing. especially in the counseling field, the idea of shame is something that is discouraged and thought of as all together wrong. it's okay for people to feel guilty, they say, because guilt is about actions (i.e. "what you have done is wrong.")..but shame, no no no! shame is the idea that something about who a person is is wrong. and certainly, we don't want people to feel that way about themselves!! there was quite a bit of discussion about this in class, which has caused me to think a little more on the subject. my professor said something that has stuck in my mind like super glue:

"we are not merely broken, we are bad. we don't just need fixing, we need redemption."

what a thought! such a provacative idea in today's society. how dare we tell someone that they are bad at their core?! how dare we say that there is no hope for a person to help themselves?! no amount of doing good will make a person good enough... no band-aids big enough to fix this problem...not enough duck tape in the world to repair the hole. what an awesome thing, though, that that's okay! how amazing is it that we don't really have to do anything to fix this, other than turn to Christ. we have a Redeemer who changes our very center... who picks us up, cleans us out/off, and pushes us on our way... every time we fall, over and over and over. hallelujah! :)