The Outcast

Now in chapter 7 Welch looks at how shame comes in the form of being an outcast.  When we are filled with shame we feel cast out, just as Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, Cain was cast out of his family, and then there was Hagar, Gen 16:1-15.  Often when we read these stories we can really identify with these real people, but that is as far as it goes.  We don't see the hope that these histories include.  We'll often think these histories are helpful for someone else, someone less contaminated than we are, that we're not worthy.

In fact Welch warns us that we often treat HOPE as a contaminated substance.  We don't think we deserve hope and when people tell us things like, "it isn't your fault," "you are created in the image of God, so you are worth it," "God doesn't make junk," "God loves you," or we try to show God how hard we are trying, or remember that we are loved by a parent, friend, etc none of these things work to make us feel better.  Even when we know that God chooses a small group of people to be the line for the Messiah, that He honours people who are not the firstborn, He brings judgment on nations who treat the poor, the widow and the orphan in the wrong way, that still doesn't seem to help us.  Nothing seems to sink into our thick skulls, we just want to go back to our comfortable place of our dark prisons of shame.  That's home.  That's what we are used to.  (p. 59)

Welch then encourages us to try something that goes so against our natural ways:  instead of looking at ourselves, look at God!  Get to KNOW God, who He is first and foremost.  The passage Welch uses to start with is Deuteronomy 7:6-8, where he encourages us to get to know God as KING.  God invites us into His Kingdom, He is faithful to us because of His love, not our worthiness, not because we are lovable but because GOD IS LOVE.  We have to get over our pride, our sense of self-esteem, or anything that would make us acceptable to God.

Welch sums it up when he says, "You can turn inward, in which case you are looking for a little self-worth to bring to the Lord, and that is pride.  Or you can turn to Him and discover that He has a heart for the unworthy." (p. 62)

Let's look at WHO God is and not even look at ourselves right now.  Let the knowledge of WHO our covenant God IS, just flow over us without trying to apply it to ourselves.  Let's try to find out what it is about God's character that causes us to love Him and turn toward Him.