Romans 8:28 says: “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose” (HCSB). If this is true, should we, as Christians, not look for good and God’s hand in everything that happens to us? Even in the midst of humiliation and embarrassment?
Embarrassment is never fun but with training and the right perspective, we can learn to see it as a blessing from God.
There are two major ways/reasons that embarrassment can be a blessing to us:
1. God can use it to humble us
2. It is a very effective teacher
1. God can use it to humble us
The Bible is filled with people who are less than perfect and many find themselves put in their place by God through embarrassment; Peter is a prime example of this.
The night before Jesus was crucified, He and His disciples were at the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will run away, because it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have been resurrected, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’ Peter told Him, ‘Even if everyone runs away, I will certainly not!’ ‘I assure you,’ Jesus said to Him, ‘today, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times!’ But he kept insisting, ‘If I have to die with You, I will never deny You!’ (Mark 14:27-31).
Peter literally and knowingly told God He was wrong to His face. The pride is practically dripping from his lips in front of the other disciples.
We can see what happened in Mark 14:66-72. Peter not only denies Jesus three times but he does it cursing and even swore an oath. Finally, when the rooster crowed for the third time “he began to weep.” While the Bible does not explicitly say the word “embarrassing,” can you imagine what it would be like to have denied God to His face in front of His disciples and then be proven dead wrong? (There’s really not that much need to imagine what that’s like if you’re anything like me- sinful- and have a memory)
God took Peter and the pride that was stored in him and used embarrassment to humble him greatly.
I actually learned to look for embarrassment from Robbie Symons’s must-read book, Passion Cry. In it, Robbie tells his own story of embarrassment:
I remember when I was a fairly new Christian with increasing opportunities to preach. I had confidence in Christ, but I also had a confidence in self that needed to be identified and crushed.
On one occasion, I was invited to preach at a university campus, and was thrilled to discover that the room was packed and the anticipation was great. In my immaturity and arrogance, I believed that I had something to say, and God would use me. However, less than halfway through my meager message, out of nowhere I took on a dry mouth that I had never experienced before. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I could barely get my mouth open. The memory still stirs up vivid emotions of complete helplessness. It became so painfully obvious how bad I was struggling that I could sense the mood in the room become awkward; the audience handed me a bottle of water and I suffered through the remainder of the message. Needless to say, I was not invited back.
Robbie then explains the effect an experience like this had on him:
My awareness of my need for the Lord and His Spirit increased a hundredfold. I was not in danger of overconfidence anymore; I was trying to muster the faith to speak at all. I didn’t see other people struggle with this problem. It was a special grace of humiliation just for me. And it worked!
I love when he says, “At its root, I fundamentally believe it was the Lord humiliating me in His grace to save me from myself.” God can so quickly and effectively tear down our pride with embarrassment.
The ironic thing about this is that it’s our pride that causes the feeling of embarrassment. If you blurt out the wrong answer in the middle of class, you become embarrassed because of the fear people will think you’re stupid. You want them to think highly of you… that’s pride. It’s the same if you drop the game-winning touchdown: you are embarrassed because you are afraid people think you’re bad. You want them to think you’re good… or at least not bad… this is again is pride. It would seem as though God is using our pride to tackle our pride.
This is how embarrassment is an indicator of areas of pride in our lives. If we are embarrassed about something, then we should know to look for pride there. “What caused me to feel embarrassed?”
2. It’s a very effective teacher
If I am embarrassed by something, the chances are that I screwed up in some way. If I am intentional though, the embarrassment can teach me how to avoid messing up again.
If I say something that I shouldn’t say in a certain situation without thinking about it, the embarrassment I feel from that experience can and should teach me to be more intentional with my words and “take every thought captive.”
If I am being careless and break something that belongs to someone else, it should teach me to be more careful next time.
The very feeling of embarrassment is a great motivator to make us pay attention to what we did and how we can avoid the same mistake next time. Sometimes we pick up on the lessons subliminally: if I break someone else’s lamp because I wasn’t paying attention to the ball I was tossing up, I’m going to understand not to do that without having to explicitly think about it. But if it’s a situation where I said something without thinking about the consequences, I may need to intentionally think about what to remember next time I open my mouth. Otherwise, I’ll probably do it again. And again.
Sometimes, though, we can become so engulfed by our embarrassment that we don’t want to think about learning from it. We have to learn to get past this pride if we want to truly take advantage of the full blessing in this embarrassment instead of letting this opportunity go to waste.
So the next time you are embarrassed and humiliated, remember that there is pride at the root of it, that God uses embarrassment to defeat pride, and that it would be for the better if you take this opportunity to learn from any mistake that was made.
I would also like to leave with this question: If embarrassment is pride due to how we want others to view us, is all embarrassment a sign of sin?
Ponder that and if so prompted, leave your answer down below.