Truth and Shame (a short story)

There's this fellow that I've known for quite some time now.  He has a very captivating and convincing manner about him.  His gift of persuasion is unparalleled.  The problem seems to be every time I spend time with him, he really drags me down.  He's quite the popular fellow, and you have probably met him on several occasions as well.  His name is Shame. 

Shame is no fair-weather friend; he comes around whether I feel bad or good.  Except, he's never there to encourage me.  He likes to bring up things in my past.  He likes to remind me of failures, and never seems to let the little things go. 

There's another fellow I know as well, his name is Truth.  It is ironic how Truth and Shame often agree about what I have done, but they still do not see eye to eye.  Both Truth and Shame tell me that I have done a lot wrong.  Shame yells at me; he tells me what a disgrace I am. He says I should hide, that I should avoid people and friends because I will only embarrass myself. 

Truth on the other hand, tells me that I have a bright future.  He tells me of a beautiful friend of his named Grace.  Oddly, she somehow already knows who I am and is eager to meet me.  She wants to introduce me to her other friends: Forgiveness, Joy, and Laughter.  But, he said she is a little old fashioned and does not like to impose herself on others.  She only comes when invited, but she always comes when invited. 

___

For years, I ignored Truth.  Shame would always whisper about Truth.  He said Truth is lying, that Truth really has no friends, and that everything he is offering is fake.  I believed Shame for a while; I listened as he told me that I am worthless, that my name is mud, that God is mad at me and I should just go quietly through life hoping that God doesn't strike me with a cosmic lightning bolt. 

But one day, I heard Truth whisper to me through a song.  I turned off the radio, and kept hearing him sing softly.  I was captivated by his soft, strong, voice.  The more I listened to Truth, the smaller and quieter Shame became.  After a few hours, Shame was desperately screaming, but it was wasted effort because at that moment Grace started singing harmony with Truth.  Even the most beautiful duets in the world fail to capture the depth and beauty of the song that I heard that morning.  It moved me, and it changed me.

___

It is hard to remember the exact order of events.  The song may have been sung for hours, maybe days...in fact, from what I am beginning to understand, the song never actually stops.  That seems to be the beauty of the Master's songs.

After I came back to my conscious self I realized Shame had completely disappeared, and Truth was larger, stronger, and more beautiful than he had ever seemed to me before.  Truth told me the song that he and Grace sing wipes God's memory of every bit of wrong that I have ever done.  He said that the darker my past was, the more beautiful their song becomes.  I followed Truth and met his friends, and it has been a beautiful journey ever since.

___

I wrote a letter to Shame today.  I advised him I will not be needing his friendship any more.  I let him know about my many new friends: Grace, Mercy, Joy, Laughter, Forgiveness, Hope, Peace, and Love. 

Shame still knocks on my door, and even sent Guilt by to take me on a trip with him.  Unfortunately, there has been a time or two that I have let Shame come inside for a while.  In fact, I found the more I let him in, the more often he shows up.  But whenever I come to my senses, all I have to do is call Grace. 

Grace and Shame have a strange nature about them that makes it impossible for them to co-exist.  To use a human illustration, it is quite a bit like light and darkness. 

Her song is not sung in a human tongue, but I have started to grasp some of the meaning in it.  She sings of a reality that is far above and far more important than what most of us mere humans can see and touch.  In this reality, both Truth and Grace always prevail over Shame; and in the end, Shame is completely destroyed.