So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away. 2 Samuel 10:4
If, in a discussion with my mother about public video cameras, I brought up the issue of personal privacy, my mother would say that public cameras are only a concern if you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. She’s always lived her life in a manner which wouldn’t embarrass her if it was aired on live TV. If you don’t have anything to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.
She’s got a point, which was illustrated this last week at a concert in Massachusetts. Just in case you don’t know the story, I’ll summarize – At a Coldplay concert last week, a kiss cam showed a couple on the jumbotron in an intimate embrace. What appeared to be a loving moment, quickly turned awkward as the couple saw themselves on the big screen. That wasn’t his wife. Horrified, and with their affair exposed on the big screen, she quickly turned away while he just dropped to the ground and crawled off screen. Had they done nothing, no one would be talking about them. Because of their shame and embarrassment though, they reacted in a manner that has flooded the news for the last several days.
When I saw the story, I couldn’t help but think of my mother’s words. If you don’t have anything to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. If, however, you are engaged in nefarious behavior, then public cameras – or kiss cameras – are a very real concern because exposure is embarrassing.
Though it didn’t involve kiss cams or jumbotrons, shame by exposure was the technique employed in today’s passage. In the story, King David sent an envoy of servants to Hunan, king of the Ammonites, to express his condolences over the recent death of Hunan’s father. Believing the servants to be spies, Hunan shaved half their beards and sent them off with their buttocks and genitals exposed. This was a profound insult because exposure is terribly embarrassing.
Thankfully, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be forcefully exposed like David’s servants. I have, however, been a victim of my own shameful behavior that was published in the local paper. Exposure of toxic behavior is terribly embarrassing but it’s easily avoidable – Just don’t do the embarrassing thing. The lesson for recovery is that I must continually ask myself if I’m doing anything that I wouldn’t want shown on the jumbotron. If there are such things in my life, then, if I don’t want the shame of exposure, I must listen to my mother and cut those things out of my life. If you don’t have anything to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.