Living in a culture of shame means to live in secret.  It means hiding and showing a facade to everyone.  It means faking it through most of life and even through most of your relationships.  It’s putting on a good face and honestly lying to everyone.

Living in a culture of freedom means being honest in everything – in everything.  It means you don’t have to lie.  You can be mad when you’re mad.  You can be honest and never have to remember the story that you made up.  You can live and walk in freedom because this culture demands it of you.  You can freely be yourself and explore identity and your soul.

I live in both.  I have to be honest, but when you’re living in shame-it’s hard to know that you’re there.  But when you live in freedom and honesty – then you can just be yourself.  The thing is – this culture demands that you find people of like ilk.  You can only live in this when the people around love you for the inconsistent and imperfect person that you are.  I know-not the most normal thing in the world, or even the easiest thing to find.