Trivia Question: What do the movies K-Pop Demon Hunters and Thunderbolts* have in common?
Answer: They’re both centered around the concept of shame. (I was also late to the trend and watched both of those movies for the first time last month.)
In the movie Thunderbolts*, two of the characters, Yelena and Bob, end up in another dimension comprised out of “rooms” of their most shameful memories. With the help of their teammates, they were able to face their demons and were able to find their way out of the shame rooms back into the real world.
I found it quite interesting that in Yelena and Bob’s shame rooms, the main event and “final boss” in both of their final shame rooms was themselves. Although many of Yelena and Bob’s sources of shame were traumatic experiences with other people, at the end, it boiled down to themselves. They couldn’t deal with all the sources of shame in their lives without facing themselves.
It really reminded me of Steve Chua’s Identity Encounter material. Some of you may be familiar with it as your Lifegroup is working through it. In Session Two, Steve talks about how shame’s root is the belief that there is something wrong about ourselves that we need to cover up and hide.
In Thunderbolts*, the “cure” for dealing with the shame rooms is love and connection with people that love and care for you even in your worse and most shameful moments.
Similarly, Identity Encounter highlights that God loves us very much. He loves us to the point of sending Jesus to die for us and take on our sin and our shame on the cross in order to set us free from our sin and shame. He loves us, every bit of us, including the part we feel are unlovable. Something I’ve learned is that the shameful parts of yourselves do not make you any less lovable in God’s eyes.
I encourage you to come before God in prayer and ask him to reveal the areas in your life where you struggle with shame. You may already know the points in which you struggle with shame, but ask God to touch those areas you struggle with and remind you of how much you are loved. Nothing you do or are ashamed of will ever change how much He loves you.