Today I have the privilege of sharing an interview with you of friend and fellow Redbud Writers Guild member, Aubrey Sampson, about her upcoming release Overcomer: Breaking Down the Walls of Shame and Rebuilding Your Soul. I met Aubrey at the first Redbud Retreat three years ago. I will never forget hearing her read what would become a section of the first chapter of this book. I don’t think there was a dry-eye in the room by the time she finished. Her story is a powerful example of what can happen when we are set free from our past and redeemed from our shame by our loving Savior.
At that retreat Aubrey and I ended up trading writing bags at the end of the weekend. Each time I go to write I see my bag and am reminded to pray for her message and ministry. Holding my copy of Overcomer felt like the fruition of a dream. However, when I prayed I was praying for everyone else who would benefit from Aubrey’s message. I didn’t see myself as a person who struggled with shame, but while digging into Overcomer I was amazed by how much bigger shame is than I had realized. I, too, found I had shame to overcome.
Bottom line: You’re going to want to go ahead and order this book. It releases October 6th, but you can pre-order it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Christian Books. I already have a list of women and teens I know would benefit from reading this page-turner of a book.
Interview with Aubrey Samson:
Aubrey Sampson is passionate about empowering women of all ages to experience freedom from shame. An author, speaker, church planter, and member of the Redbud Writers Guild, Aubrey lives and ministers in the Chicagoland area with her husband, Kevin and three young sons. Connect with Aubrey at www.aubreysampson.com and @aubsamp.
- What is shame?
Shame encompasses such a wide range of emotions it can be difficult to define. Perhaps the simplest way to understand it is to think back on a moment when you experienced it. You may have felt embarrassment, discomfort, or self-consciousness (I was a middle schooler with pink and purple braces and bangs up to the clouds, so yeah, I know self-consciousness!). Shame can also express itself in much weightier emotions, such as when we feel humiliated, inadequate, injured, or abused. Another difficulty with shame is that so many of us live under the weight of it without realizing it because we’ve been conditioned by culture and life experience to accept that feeling as normal. Shame is simply always there; it’s that familiar yet profound feeling that we don’t measure up.
Add to all of that, the pressure in our Christian culture to operate above reproach all the time, we can feel ashamed when we make even the tiniest of mistakes. We may even believe that if we aren’t shaming ourselves, we’re in danger of becoming prideful. So we beat ourselves up as the “better,” more Christlike option. It’s a vicious cycle. At its core, an identity of shame is the belief that, in whole or in part, I am not enough.
Throughout Overcomer, I share my own history of “not-enoughness,” along with stories from others who’ve overcome shame in their lives— ranging from situations of abuse to struggles with body image and eating, to everyday laughable imperfections.
The ultimate message of Overcomer is this: in spite of the overwhelming nature of shame, there is good news. The promise of Scripture is that when we look to Jesus, our shame is transformed into sparkling, beaming joy (Psalm 34:5). There may be moments in life when we feel condemned, but when our identity is centered in Christ, we can discard the dark covering of shame and rise in radiance.
- In your new book, Overcomer, you share the seven lies shame tells women. Can you go into one of those for us?
While shame tells us many lies, ranging from My past is unsalvageable to I’ll never be free from shame, I believe one of its most insidious lies is that because of shame in our pasts, we are unfit to be used by God in powerful ways. Regardless of the form your shame might take, sooner or later it will try to make you feel disqualified so that you question your ability to be a good anything—leader, employee, friend, date, spouse, parent, even child of God. But the truth for us today is the same truth that empowered Paul in 2 Corinthians. The grace of God is sufficient, not in spite of our weaknesses, brokenness, and shame but smack-dab in the middle of them. That’s where the power is, according to Paul: “[The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ … That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses. … For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9–10).
In other words, if we believe we’re insufficient (and even if in some circumstances we are), it doesn’t even matter, because Jesus is more than sufficient and he qualifies us—for grace, for mercy, and for meaningful service in the kingdom of God.
- The title of your book is, Overcomer, what does that word mean to you? What will your readers take away from it?
About a year ago, a friend heard the book title and asked, “Who’s the overcomer? You? The reader?” Her question struck me as funny at the time, because I initially thought, “Well, of course it’s the reader! Who else would it be?”
But then I realized something that changed the roadmap of the book. The only reason we can overcome our shame is because we have an Overcomer in Christ. He endured the ultimate shame so that we no longer have to. That’s what I want readers to leave with – the truth that even if they still battle shame at times (and we all do), they have, in Jesus, a Savior and a Shame Remover—a Sovereign Ruler who compels our shame to bow down before his authority. In other words, even if your past is dark, even if you’ve spent your entire life feeling like a replica of yourself, even if you think you don’t measure up, even if you’ve been hiding in shame for years, you can overcome shame because your Overcomer already has.
Overcomer equips readers with the courage necessary to begin coming out of the darkness, kicking down the walls of shame, and embracing freedom and future in Christ.
