Summer Reading: Shame Interrupted

As finals (finally) wind down, I’m peeping over the top of my textbooks to gaze at the prospect of a long list of summer reading. There are of course, the books I must read for the sake of review; then there are the books I must read for the sake of my soul. This is one I ordered today: Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection by one of my very favorite authors, Edward T. Welch.

“Shame controls far too many of us. Worthless, inferior, rejected, weak, humiliated, failure…it all adds up to wishing we could get away from others and hide. We know what shame feels like. The way out, however, is harder to find. Time doesn’t help, neither does confession, because shame is just as often from what others do to you as it is from what you have done. But the Bible is about shame from start to finish, and, if we are willing, God’s beautiful words break through. Look at Jesus through the lens of shame and see how the marginalized and worthless are his favorites and become his people. God cares for the shamed. Through Jesus you are covered, adopted, cleansed, and healed.”

I’ll try and write a review but I can’t promise anything soon. Truths like this have a way of seeping rather than surging through the soul. In the meantime here is a link to a video that coincides with the book.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDRF-lZAPzM]