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Shame, Shame, Overcoming Shame
Episode #855
05/07/2023
Walk and talk with John Enslow
Weakness can be a source of shame, but as we enter overcoming shame we can access the strength and power from God.
Well hey guys? I am now back home after doing the writing trip about the overcoming shame book. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to but I’m real excited about what I did get it done. I have sent a request out to a number of guys asking for testimonies of shame, overcoming shame, shame that is overcome and shame that’s current. And I’m asking for testimonies. I really want to show the reality and the depths of shame and what it looks like. I want to paint a picture of shame, and give people the ability to see shame in others. I found that often when we see the shames in others lives it normalize our own, and we realize that it may not be true. So that to me is an amazing thing.
I was involved in a group setting where we went and did an affirmation circle. In the affirmation circle each man stood up and was talking about their own personal likes and dislikes about themselves. They’re talking about their own shame. They were talking about things that shamed them about themselves, about their making, about their person, about their character, about their life situation, about all kinds of shame. And then they had men stand up before them, and they had those men speak their own truth about that man. It was one of the most touching, amazing encounters I’ve ever had. There was a bunch of tears and the residual of it was pretty amazing. The residual of this was that these guys literally were able to say, “This man thinks this about himself, that is so not true and here’s the real truth that I see. Here’s the data that I have.” And it really blew the guys away. They were like able to say, “I never would’ve thought that you would’ve thought that.”
So in this book, I am wanting to pepper it all with shame stories, testimonies of shame, overcoming shame, overcomed shame, and shame that is current. And I am writing stories about shame from my own life. I am enjoying just diving in. I’m being very raw, very real, very honest with it, but I’m enjoying the process of bringing it out. There is an amazing healing nature to bring shame into the light and to bring our shames before others to bring healing and wholeness. Obviously you have to do it in a scenario and situation that is safe and that you’re being honored and attuned to and that the people are for you. I wouldn’t want to do it just with any group. I would want to do it with a trusted group of men or women, whatever, that I trusted to bring that shame out with. So one of the shames I’m talking about is the shame of our weakness.
I have written on the blog several times about the fact that as a child, I was unwilling to sing this song Jesus loves me in it’s entirety. How I was sing it is Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so, little ones to Him belong, hmmhmmhmm but He is strong. Yes, Jesus love me. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus love me. The Bible tells me so. I would not sing, “They are weak!” I would not do it. I absolutely refused because I didn’t want to be weak. Weakness makes us dependent. But here is the amazing thing about weakness, weakness also gives us access to His strength. It’s the only thing that gives us access to His strength. We see that in Paul’s life where Paul said, he boast in his weakness. And while our shame, as men as women, can be around our weakness, men especially their inability, their lack of prowess, their lack of character. All these things are shaming things and they’re weaknesses. But when I enter into my weakness, when I enter into the shame and sit with that weakness and sit with that shame, in His strength I literally lean into Him for His strength on the situation. I am brought into victory, wholeness and healing.
In the NLT version of it. It says, Each time He said, my grace is sufficient for y’all… look at my Southerness. So here is what Paul said, Each time He said, my grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I can take pleasure in my weakness, and the insults and hardship and persecution and troubles that I suffer for Christ. When I am weak, then I am strong.(2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NLT)
And I know where that strength comes from. I know that that strength comes from the life of Christ. I know that strength comes from, and as referenced in my book The Great Exchange, it comes from an exchange of lives. It comes from an exchange of weakness for strength, my life weakness, His life strength. And I experience victory. I experience lack of shame. I’ll enter into the reality of who He is and it’s beautiful. It’s absolutely beautiful. I go into union with Him and I come out vulnerable and unashamed. I don’t have shame when I enter into His strength and allow Him to be strong in me. So I’m really celebrating this book. I would still very much love your prayers about this because I’m looking to continue to work through this and working through and develop the stories, and bring it out. I want it to be powerful. I wanted to be a man’s manual on how to overcome shame is really what I wanted to be. I’m gonna bring and pepper it with all these testimonies.
I also want to invite anyone, I’ve asked several people individually, but I would love shame stories. I would love testimonies of shame, and shames that I’ve been overcome shames that are being overcome and shames that are still current. And I’d love to receive stories about that and be able to do included in the book. I’m going through a number of different shame, shame and weakness, shames in life circumstances, body shame, character shame, all kinds of shame I’m going into. I wanna give examples of that and I’d like to give more than one example. I’d like to give a couple of examples. I’d like to pepper, literally pepper, this with stories. So that it’s not just teaching, it’s not just revelation, it’s testimony it’s living epistles overcoming shame, in the process of overcoming shame or shames that will be overcome.
So I invite anyone if you want to reach out to me and say hey, I have a shame story I’d like to share, I would love it. I would absolutely love it. So I bless y’all. I love you and I appreciate you thanks for listening. Thanks for following. Thanks for your prayers. I really, really need them as I have bring this out. It has been a lot to really come at this and face it in reality and in truth. I mean, I’ve been very, very honest with some personal shames that I have. I’ve brought in some stories about shames that I experienced in others. And then I have several testimonies of men that reached out and said please can you share this. I want to expose this and allow this shame and this shame story to bring victory and crush shame in other men’s lives. So I hope to hear from y’all, let me know if anybody wants to do that and I will be talking to you real soon.
Shame, Shame, Overcoming Shame – Episode #855 – DivineDesigned.Life
As I am am writing about Overcoming Shame I long to help paint a realistic picture of what shame looks like and how it affects us.
