By now I'm sure you've seen the pictures of Britney Spears bald head. It filled the news for days (until Anna Nicole Smith's death stole the spotlight). It has been like watching a train wreck happen over the years from marriages, dropped babies, missing underwear, divorce, K-Fed, rehab and now a shaved head. Sadly, many of us watch with a certain glee in her fall. It is in her shame we try to salve our own sense of worth.
Why do we like watching people fall? It is through watching Britney Spears that we feel less vulnerable, to being exposed for the fraud we often feel we are. Ever since the garden, when sin entered our world, we hid from one another because we felt undone. We feel naked and exposed. Many of us run to cover up our nakedness by working hard, impressing others and playing the game called 'life'.
Yes, we have a problem. Sadly, we can be consumed with our sense of shame and fear of other people, that we try to suppress the real problem. The problem is we are naked and exposed before God. Naked we come into this world, and naked we go out.
Are you tired of hiding in shame? Edward T. Welch, in When People Are Big and God is Small…Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man, remind us that God's answer is what we need, "The gospel is the story of God covering his naked enemies, bringing them to the wedding feast, and then marrying them rather than crushing them." Jesus took our shame and defeated it through is death, resurrection and ascension. Welch's book goes on to help people overcome this fear:
1. Know the Fear of the Lord
2. Grow in the Fear of the Lord
3. Biblically Examine Your Felt Needs
4. Know Your Real Needs
5. Delight in the God who Fills Us
6. Love Your Enemies and Your Neighbors
7. Love Your Brothers and Sisters
8. Fear God and Keep His Commandments
Pick up a copy: When People Are Big and God is Small…Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man by Edward T. Welch
“The Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be kept safe.” Proverbs 29:25 Tracing the Biblical roots of fear and shame, Welch shows us how the Gospel covers our nakedness and makes us to be people-lovers, not people-fearers.