Woe and Whoa

Woe is me.  People are angry.  People are indignant.  There are fingers pointing at me.  What shall I do?  Am I guilty?  I should be.  I was wrong.  I made bad choices.  I deserve punishment worse than anything they are even considering.  I'll ask again, am I guilty?  I was, but I have been pardoned.  The judge has set me free and counts me as righteous.  Why would He do that?  Because someone else, His own Son, stepped in and willingly paid the penalty for my transgression.  My record says "Not Guilty."  That's how it is. 

Now that the judge has freed me from my guilt, what am I going to do with the shame.  Shame?  I'm not guilty.  Why should I have shame.  Well, shame works differently than guilt.  It's an odd thing really.  The judge frees a person of their sentence but the world does not.  Shame is not as much about what was done as it is about comparison.  If I am seen as having done something worse than the person sitting next to me, I am shamed.  The person on my right thinks they would NEVER do what I had done.  Or would they?  I once was that person, but now I know that there is nothing too low for me to be involved in, and when I avoid certain crimes, sins, behaviors; it is only by the grace of God preventing it.  I am depraved. 

The person on my left actually thinks that they have done things worse than me, so they are shamed.   It's time they understood that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  But Whoa!  You know what?  It's time the guy on my right figures that out too.  A person who thinks that they are better than others based on their own merit is to be pitied most of all.  If they are never able to admit their faults they will never see the need to go to the judge for a pardon.  They will never see "Not Guilty" stamped on their record. 

So what shall I do with the shame?  I think it's time to get out of line.  Why do people spend their time and energy and peace judging each others sins as somehow better or worse than our own?  One thing that has come out of my darkness is a knowledge that penetrates the heart saying, "You are no better than your neighbor."  It should also tell me "your neighbor is no better than you.  You are equals."  There is no shame among equals. 

Woe is me!  I can't seem to forgive myself.  I can't seem to leave the past behind me and move on without the shame.  But, whoa unto me.  Who am I to shame a person Jesus has pardoned?