merry manifesto

I want to write with abandon and vigor. Boldly penning words of hope, truth and joy. Words that snap, crackle, and pop as they fly across the page. Words that lead to action. Words like pugnacious, tenacious—opulent grace-filled pages of truth and hope. Words that inspire. Words that convict. Words that rip into the calloused flesh of patriarchal scars while rending to mend. For it is in our brokenness we can be healed. Cracks are how the light gets in—how the festering wound is cleansed as the infection below the surface oozes and is exposed. People may be repulsed—and they should be.

Oppression bends and breaks when the hunched backs begin to straighten. When the burdened cry-ENOUGH, when the marginalized come together. When the silenced shout. When every solitary person finds their “me too”.

For this is what Christmas brings—Christ’s coming signals a revolution—a baby threatened the king, a man—the empire, and yet, all of this was Emmanuel—God with us. My favorite Christmas song reminds us that “His law is love and his Gospel is peace”. Law is loving—boundaries are beneficial—they don’t limit life-they enhance it. Peace isn’t a cease fire-it’s a person—a man who entered into our wounded world. These are the words I want to write- words that may offend and pierce—a mere echo of God who was pierced FOR us.

I don’t know what this process will look like—I’m sure that it will be line any other journey. That my ideas and perceptions as I pen the first words will be a distant memory when I finish. I don’t know where this spark will lead me—but I know this new joy and new freedom will grow—one word, one post, one day at a time.