Episode 6: Freedom: A Poem in Free Verse

Freedom.
It's throwing off the can'ts
And shouldn'ts
And 'you have no business'
Chains you've carried for ages.

It's taking hold of all your pieces--
The past
The now
The what's ahead
The broken
The painful to the touch
The scarred parts
And the pretty parts
The places of wholeness
And fulfillment
And reconciling all as one
Living, dynamic, brave
Human

It's deciding that hard can be healthy
And sometimes
The path of least resistance
Only brings atrophy.

It's breathing deep
Of the perfume of Christ
Drinking deep and long
Of the fount of grace
It's savoring and feasting
On the bread of life--
Broken for you.

Broken to redeem your
Brokenness,
Broken so you might know
Wholeness,
Broken because love goes into
All the dark, cracked places.
It cannot help itself.

Love, true love,
Love like this
Is the healing.
And it only has it's
All-consuming, forever victorious power
Because it battled the dark,
Faced head-on the ravages of undiluted evil,
Bore every ounce of soul-wrenching pain,
And Love did it all so you might live.

You can breathe
The clean air of joy;
You can grow in
The verdant soil of Truth;
You can walk
In the warm sun of peace--
Though darkness looms,
Love fought so you can be free.

Freedom is seeing it all laid bare
And knowing it's there for you
And taking your place
In the family
Of the free
And redeemed.