Where is your shame?

Our culture has taken shame and made it an evil thing. We are told that we should not make value judgements about anyone or any action because we all should just do our best and and find value and doing our best. What is our best? Is what I feel I can do the best that I can do, or is it possible that my best is not good enough? What if my best does not accomplish the job that needs to be done? It can mean the difference between feeding my family and paying my bills to saving my life or the lives of others. If I am able to accomplish more than I thought or felt was possible, is that something I should be proud of? If it is shouldn't I be ashamed if I only accomplish my best?

Life doesn't care how you feel, what you are going through, or how you got in the situation your in. Life will continue to hand you difficulties along with the joys and tribulations along with pleasures. Sometimes you will do the best you can and fail and life will not care. It is only when we take the shame of failure and inability, and turn it into motivation to go above and beyond what is possible. Life is never fair, and it is our willingness to seek truth above fairness and realize that what we see, feel, taste, hear, and touch is not as important as the ability to recognize that there are things greater than our abilities around us. It may not be popular, but I believe we should be ashamed of only doing our best.

I personally find my motivation to strive from my God, my wife and children, and those of you I interact with on a daily basis. I want to be better than the best for all who are counting on me to produce in my life, and often I fail because I am tired, hungry, hurting or just don't feel well. I am ashamed of those times and strive to reduce their frequency. I hope all of you are ashamed as well when you let yourself and others down. Let's bring back shame, not to bring others down, but to bring ourselves and those around us up.

And if thinking about your current performance in life you have nothing to be ashamed of, you are consistently shattering the expectations of yourself and the expectations of those around you, Job well done.