Shame Says Run & Grace Says Come
Psalm 103:13 — The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him.
I have an uncle I adore. His name is Uncle Wayland.
Yeah, kind of like Waylon Jennings, if you will, right? And if I did something I shouldn’t have as a kid, he didn’t yell at me or lecture. All he had to do was look at me and say, “Denise, I am so disappointed.”
That was it.
Instant tears. Every single time. I’m a 54-year-old woman, and if he said something like that to me, I’d still be sobbing.
It’s because when you love somebody, and they’re disappointed in you… oh man, that hits deep.
We tend to project that same disappointment onto God when we fall short. I think we imagine Him talking to us the same way. Like when we mess up or lose our temper or doubt or just feel like we’re not doing life very well, we picture Him shaking His head saying, “Ugh, I expected better out of you.”
But that picture of God isn’t actually the one we see in Jesus.
Because that’s not the way Jesus responds to people in the Bible. When people were struggling or failing or exhausted, He moved towards them, not away. And not with crossed arms or a heavy sigh, but with something steadier… something that feels a whole lot more like a good father kneeling down, softening his voice, and pulling his child in close instead of pushing them away.
God doesn’t respond to our failures by pushing us away. Instead, He meets us with compassion and invites us closer, even when we feel least deserving of it.
So, if today feels like one of those days when you’re convinced God must be disappointed in you, remember this: the voice of shame pushes you away, but the voice of Jesus always calls you closer.
And maybe the next time that old, familiar feeling creeps in, you don’t run the other direction like you used to. Maybe you stay. Maybe you lean in just a little.
Not because you’ve got it all together, but because you’re beginning to believe that He already knows you don’t.
And He loves you still.
He hasn’t stepped back an inch.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
- When you make a mistake, what do you tend to assume God is thinking about you?
- How does Jesus’ treatment of struggling people in the Gospels challenge that assumption?
- Is there an area of your life where shame has made you pull away from God?
- What would it look like to move toward Him instead of away from Him today?
- How does seeing God as a compassionate Father change the way you approach Him?
