Rachael W’s Reviews > Face to Face: Knowing God beyond Our Shame > Status Update

“What is at stake in shame is ‘who I am.’”

“ when love fails to suffer long and to be kind, when it falls into envy-in short, when love fails to be loved-it is more likely the case that has fallen victim to shame. Unable to bear that burden it reacts with envy, blame, and judgment, and makes every effort to protect a wounded self into attack and return

“in His face, it is not shame that we encounter, an effort to push us away. Rather, it is the face of Him who ever seeks His bride that she might be presented “without spot or blemish“ > I realize now after reading this that to be presented without spot or blemish is not not to be broken, but to not be hiding it. Christ accepts us with what we may think is a spot or blemish and doesn’t shame us but loves us

“in marriage, the lover knows himself in the soul of the other. We become members of one another, a reflection made possible in love.”

“It can be said, however, that awe and wonder make love possible, marked as they are by humility – the ability to bear the burden of shame in the presence of another (and of oneself)… shame, denies the wonder of who we are, as well as the wonder we feel for others.”

“only love, solves anything, and love requires not equality but humility, the ability to hold the other in wonder to receive him or her as a gift.”

“indeed, to a great extent, those with whom we are in relation, do not fully understand their own selves. We are always mutually subject to our own shame, and must mutually find our way over the various mountains that it presents.”

“the spiritual journey is not an exercise in modern psychology or a path to becoming “well adjusted”. It is a journey through difficult places within the heart toward a reality that is formed and shaped by God.”

“ some argue that the imagery in our inherited stories and myths is the product of culture. There is, I think, a stronger case to be made that culture is the product of something far older than humanity itself.”

Shame can come from a loss of identity -something that leaves an emptiness, even if the emptiness is preferable to the fullness you had before.