Chains
Breaking the chains that bind us mentally and emotionally liberates us to create fully inclusive communities of faith. (Photo by Bryson Hammer on Unsplash)
“Without community, there is no liberation...but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.” – Audre Lorde
This quote by Audre Lorde always reminds me that liberation is intricately connected to the company we keep; we are all connected---for better or for worse.
So much of my personal and professional work over the past five years has been centered around being connected to those around me, especially those on the margins. I served as a missionary through the General Board of Global Ministries for two years in Detroit, Mich., with the NOAH Project tackling issues around homelessness. It was there that I developed a deep passion for social justice and mission. It was that work in Detroit and the glaring intersection between homelessness and mass incarceration that fed my passion and interest of prison abolition and led me to seminary which has informed my advocacy and work in ways I could not have imagined. Those that I worked alongside were different than I was, but it was those differences that fueled a beautiful relationship full of awe and wonder. It was those differences that made it clear that there was work to be done together if the liberation of all God’s people was to be achieved.
As Christians, we need to focus on liberation. Liberation and freedom are a part of God’s intention for humanity. When looking at creation and the imago Dei, we can see that God’s intention for humanity was mutuality, respect, and valuing of one another. God’s intention was for all humans to have dignity and worth. God created us to be bound up with one another. Adam and Eve were “bone of bone and flesh of flesh,” intricately connected to one another for better or for worse. Humanity was created to be free. Although we are radically free, there is responsibility in said freedom. The freedom we have is for something. It is for creation, for God, and for others. Freedom for is not power over something or someone. It is freedom that is oriented toward the flourishing of the earth, of one another, and for receiving God within our lives. To be made in the image of God is to participate in God’s freedom within what is given to us. The freedom for one another causes us to be dependent upon one another.
As a queer, Black woman, belonging is something that I have always craved. I have always strived to be “enough” and have tried to contort myself to fit into the boxes that society has made for me. Rather than try to find a box that can encompass my identity, I have found that I need to get rid of the boxes entirely. I was not created to fit into a box or conform to societal standards. I was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God tasked to bring Christ’s kin-dom here on earth. I am different. And my difference matters and makes me unique. I am a person who values community above all else and strives to create inclusive and affirming communities where individual flourishing can be realized. When thinking about freedom and liberation, I often love to ask others the following question: “Who would you be if you were allowed to flourish in all the desires of your heart?”
The answer to that question is at the heart of liberation. The answer to that question is the gateway to figuring out how we all can become radically free. Let’s get free together.
Grace Okerson Cropped
Grace Okerson
A Florida native, Grace Okerson is a first-year Master of Divinity Student studying at United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. She is pursuing a concentration in Chaplaincy with the hope of going into hospital and/or hospice chaplaincy. This post is republished with permission from the Lenten Devotional series of the Methodist Federation for Social Action.