What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?
A reed shaken by the wind?
Someone dressed in soft robes?
—Matthew 11.7, 8
The truth will not likely come to us
dressed in fancy stuff. Beware of the voices
trying to protect the privilege of the privileged.
Beware of the voices easily offended at words
despite the offense of injustice all about them.
Expect truth in a hard shell, a harsh rebuke
to our worship of comfort at the expense of compassion.
“You have scattered the proud, brought down the mighty,
and lifted up the lowly.”
The truth is hard that asks for our hearts and lives.
Where to begin? First, before you go off
to crusade against the powerful, look within.
What are the lowly voices in you that need lifting,
that need protecting from haughty judgments?
What little child in you
would God wrap in God’s own soft robes?
What hierarchies strut in their finery in your head,
the powers that arrogantly measure your worth
in defiance of the perfect love of God,
and of God’s complete blessing?
The harsh words of the prophet strike first
at your own self-denigrating beliefs.
Once you have pulled them down from their thrones
you can help others do the same.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net