Remember: Subverting the Honor/Shame System
Honor and shame are personal commodities that you can lose or gain. . . . Within this system there is no inherent sense of the self. (Sunday)
When you’re trapped inside a social system where you constantly have to work for your superiority and can slip into inferiority in a moment, you are inevitably very insecure.
(Monday)
The spiritual journey could be seen as a constant purification of motive until we can finally say, “I have no other reason to do anything except love of God and love of neighbor.”
(Tuesday)
In a male honor/shame system, a “true man” always seeks the best, the top, and the most in terms of roles, power, and possessions.
(Wednesday)
Jesus openly dismissed and ignored his cultural and religious honor/shame system. He not only ignored it, he went in the opposite direction.
(Thursday)
Grace is God’s magnificent jailbreak from our self-made prisons. (Friday)
Rest: Affirmations The words we use have power—for good or ill. Think of a phrase you have said aloud or thought to yourself, language that participates in the honor/shame system by ignoring your inherent dignity. Turn it around and say, in first person, present tense, an affirmation of your God-given value. For example: I am unlovable. . . . I am infinitely loved. I don’t have enough. . . . I have everything I need. I am stupid. . . . I have the mind of Christ. I am worthless. . . . I am precious in God’s eyes, I am honored, and God loves me.
Repeat the positive statement aloud, slowly, with intention and trust, several times. Then rest in the awareness that you are already and forever, without any effort or achievement on your part, a beloved child of God.
For further study:
Dancing Standing Still: Healing the World from a Place of Prayer
(book)
Francis: Subverting the Honor/Shame System (CD, MP3 download)
The Path of Descent (CD, MP3 download)
Gateway to Silence:
You are precious in my eyes, you are honored,
and I love you. (Isaiah 43:4)
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