This holiday feels all kinds of sticky right now.
Sticky like a child's fingers after they've eaten their favorite treat. It's wonderful to behold with your eyes, but you want their hands to stay far far away from you.
Sticky like peanut butter that goes so good with jelly or Fluff or apples or bananas, but tastes awful with tuna or tacos.
Sticky like double-sided tape that is super hard to get on right without it bunching up into a wad that gets chucked in the garbage only to try again.
Sticky because it's shouts, "LET FREEDOM RING!" and we love that and we want that, but right now, it sure doesn't feel like that.
Every single of one of us...
no matter
where we've come from
what we believe
who we love
what makes up the moments of our lives
...has an innate desire and need for FREEDOM.
None of us are left out.
And we fight for it with all our might.
Sticky or not.
My own many-times trembling, but just-enough brave heart, cries out for it.
Lately, I've been caught up, because of the stickiness of it all, to spend all my energy fighting for FREEDOM in the outer spaces.
Whose freedom matters the most?
What's the best way to make sure I keep all my freedoms in tact?
How can I make others see and agree with my path to freedom?
I've lost something along the way. Something super important.
The fight for FREEDOM for my inner, real self, the sacred space no one, and no thing can touch or ever take away, that's all mine.
The one where God dwells and helps and transforms and redeems.
The place that will bring the outer kind of freedom, even if I don't see it right away.
Because I always always have the FREEDOM to...
be kind
enjoy beauty
learn, grow and change
be generous
love my neighbor, period
be trustworthy
take risks
be gentle
walk with integrity
filled with respect for all
show compassion
journey with humility
forgive
shine my light
be patient
don the mantle of courage
be authentic and vulnerable
open my heart to an abiding faith
work with all my might
always always always HOPE
When push comes to shove
or when the rubber meets the road
or whatever cute phrase we want to use to make our point,
it's this kind of FREEDOM that must be fought for on the battlefields of our hearts, souls, bodies and minds with great strength and courage, every moment of every day.
It's this FREEDOM that will "unsticky" us.
We'll want to see it and hold it up close.
It will taste good with everything.
It will bind us together instead of breaking us apart.
It's this FREEDOM that will make us ALL free.
Every single one of us.
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