Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Jensen Holt McNair.

What's the worst thing you've ever done?

The thing that right after you did it or said it, you just had that sinking feeling of defeat.

The thing that makes it hard for you to believe that God is happy with you, that he can forgive you,

or that he even loves you.

Now, for many of us, something comes to mind right away. Maybe it's a choice to cheat on a spouse,

to end a pregnancy, to drive while intoxicated, a choice that changed your life forever.

Maybe it's not a big, huge thing, but maybe it's a habitual sin spiral that you're trapped in. Drinking too often and too

much. Sleeping with your girlfriend or boyfriend. Watching pornography in the dark of your room.

Yelling at your children in anger when no one is watching. Shame, it's a sticky thing. It's a feeling that indicates we

know we've messed up. We know that we have the mark of sin on us, a stain we cannot get out,

we cannot erase, we cannot go back and undo. But definitionally, shame goes further than the

acknowledgement of sin or of failure,

to the embodied belief that my sin, my failure means that I am unworthy, that I am a failure.

Shame is the reason why we jump from I've sinned against God to God could never love me.

God could never forgive me for this.

Our own culture does do a good job of shaming people for their transgressions,

from recording people you think are in the wrong and blasting them online to cancel culture.

We know how to shame people. But in the ancient

near East, the cultural context of the Bible, this was even more associated with shame. They were a

collectivist community and honor shame culture. And in these kinds of cultures, what is more important

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