Edward T. Welch
Non-Fiction
Back of the
book:
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 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.
About the
author:
Edward T. Welch,
MDiv, PhD,
is a licensed psychologist and faculty member at the Christian Counseling &
Educational Foundation (CCEF). He has counseled for over thirty years and is
the best-selling author of many books including When People Are Big and God
Is Small; Addictions; Depression; Running Scared; and What Do You Think
of Me? Why Do I Care? He and his wife Sheri have two married daughters and
four grandchildren.
My thoughts:
I
don’t review many non-fiction books. Not because I don’t like them or because I
don’t read them. It is because they take me so much longer to read and ponder
my thoughts before I put them on paper.
Shame Interrupted
took me an extra amount of time. I found myself reading a portion and then
needing to put the book down and spend some time thinking and absorbing what I
had just ingested. My copy of the book is so marked up and filled with sticky
notes that I’m going to have to buy other copies to pass along. This one isn’t
leaving my grasp!
Dr.
Welch begins the book at the very beginning. He unveils what shame really is
and where it came from. We start the journey with the very first humans in the
garden before shame descended. Through the use of conversational narrative we
are made to see that we all suffer from it in one form or another because we
come from a fallen state.
This
book is a journey through scripture and modern day life that explores how we
try to cover, overcome and move beyond shame. The truth is that there is no
escaping it except the power of Christ’s atonement for us. By the time I
reached the final chapter Brides and
Banquets I alternately wanted to weep and cheer.
I
recommend this to anyone…because we all suffer from shame of some sort. We are
ashamed of things we have done. We are ashamed of things that have been done to
us. But in the pages of this book lie the answer to overcoming that shame. Pick
it up and prepare to let the burden go.
Favorite quotes:
“Try
changing the subject so it is more about God than about your shame. The basic
idea is to focus on the matchless worth of the Lord God and then get connected
to him.”
“Identify
shame, hear God’s words and believe them, take a journey past death into
eternity itself until your soul is full and you are confident that joy has the
last word. Then come back to the challenges of today. It sounds like one big
loop, but once you get back to everyday life, everything looks different after
you’ve had a glimpse of heaven. You know who wins.”
“Disclosure of Material
Connection: I received one or more of the products or
Services mentioned above
for free in the hope that I would mention it
on my blog. Regardless, I
only recommend products or services I use personally
and believe will be good
for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance
With the Federal Trade
Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides concerning the
Use of Endorsements and
Testimonials in Advertising.”
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