Why Did Cinderella Run?
Cinderella is a story I’m sure you all know. Prince charming hosts a great ball. Cinderella wants to go to the ball but she has nothing to wear. Until out of nowhere, her fairy Godmother shows up, and gives her all she needs. She goes to the ball, and she has a ball dancing with the Prince, until the clock strikes midnight. Then, she runs.
You ever stop for a moment and ask why she ran?
Her Fairy Godmother never said she had to leave by midnight. Never said she had to hide from the Prince once the clock struck 12. Just, simply, than when it did, everything would go back to normal. Her dress would turn back into servant-rags, her horses would turn back into mice, her coach would turn back into a pumpkin.
No one ever told her she had to run – they didn’t have to. No one of us ever ask why she did – we didn’t need to. We all know why – shame made Cinderella run. Shame about who she really was behind the glass slipper.
The headwaters of shame go back to the Garden, where Adam and Eve first sinned, realized their nakedness, and tried to hide it, both from God and from one another. Since then, sin, and in particular, the feelings of shame that come with it, has touched all of us.
You might feel shame about your family of origin – a broken home, a messed-up childhood.
Shame about something in your past – a word you said, a place you went, a relationship you were in that crossed boundaries that should not have been crossed.
Maybe – like Cinderella – you feel a comparative shame – you simply don’t feel you measure up to others.
You could run away before you’re found out. You could reach for fig leaves. Or, you could draw near to God, and hear what he has to say. If you are his, God says you are no longer clothed in shame, but robes of righteousness (Isa. 61:10). You no longer have shame emblazoned on your forehead, but God’s very own name (Rev. 22:4). Transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son — you are his beloved child now (Col. 1:13-14).
That is, in regard to what could be called “past-tense” shame. Shame resulting either from sins you’ve committed, and already confessed and received forgiveness for, but still kind of feel, still kind of weigh you down. Or, shame you may feel as a result of others having sinned against you. Something they said, or did, or failed to do. To the former, God says that shame is past its expiration point – you’ve been forgiven. To the latter, God says that shame was never yours to begin with. It’s his actions in your life that establish your identity, no one else’s.
There is, however, another form of shame, one we could call present-tense. This is shame for sin you’ve committed, or are committing, and have yet to repent of. Not “yet to feel bad about,” but yet to repent of, ask forgiveness for, turn away from. As for that form of shame, it should not be thrown off, or ignored until you have confessed. That’s what present-tense shame is for – to drive you back to God, repenting. Once there, allow it to drive away – it’s fulfilled its purpose and is free to leave.
This, my brothers and sisters, unconfessed sin bringing with it present-tense shame, is what reminds of our need to confess our sins.
Father, we believe right now, in this moment, you hear us. You hear the hundreds of men and women seated here today who’ve confessed their sins to you. And you haven’t turned your back on us as a result. You haven’t recoiled from what we’ve revealed. You have not disowned us, for you became our Father knowing the weakness and failings we would bring before you. You see us covered and made clean by the blood of the lamb, and for that reason you listen, you hear, and you forgive. Would you remind us of that reality that we might praise you, enjoy you, and pray to you all the more. Amen.