The Shame of Being Good, Johnny

Being good can be a dangerous thing. It can become our identity, our way of feeling worthy, our way of giving meaning, direction and purpose to our lives...all of which can be good things themselves but only in the context of the gospel. Being good is at its worst when it is used as our means of earning God's approval, acceptance and love. In that context, it is the source of judgement, pride, condemnation, and fear. Our attempts to free ourselves from shame by being good inevitably lead us back to the shame we tried to escape.

A story I know about sadly illustrates this. A man who attended church regularly stated, "I don't know about Jesus dying for my sins and being resurrected and all of that...I just sit in church and try to think about being a good person."

When this man came face to face with great personal shame and his inability to be good, the man was overwhelmed and chose to take his own life. The irony, of course, is that Jesus gave His life so that we are lifted from the dark depths of shame, and rescued from having to be good in order to be loved. That we continue the path of being good and avoiding acceptance of this gift of grace for ourselves as well as for others is truly the real shame.