Shamed into Sainthood

(Proverbs 11:2 KJV)  When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

If your values are based in the Bible you have a lot of dissonance in your life.  We see it here with the idea of “shame” (dishonor NASB) (7036).  This is a concept that has fallen off the radar of New Age thinking and more important, New Age feeling.  In my collection of translations the most common word is “shame” but you also see “disgrace”, “reproach”.  This is a word that connects our inner sense of what is right with the mores of society around us. 

We live in a culture that has no shame.  Shame might imply that there is something wrong with us, something that needs to be fixed, something that we are responsible for.  Today that is all rejected by the secular world and much of the religious world.  We need to embrace it, not because we want to put ourselves down but as my auto mechanic says, “If it ain’t broke, you can’t figure out how to fix it.” 

So?  Human beings are broke.  We have much to be ashamed of.  We have much that should generate guilt.  All of that drives us to repentance, faith and the grace of God turning us from dirty, rotten, no-good sinners into saints in process.  Admit your failures and limitations so that God can do something with them.