Loosen Your Grip
Where are you clinging to the comforts of systems of slavery?
Exodus 16:2-3
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of God in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
The audacity to complain while being led out of slavery by God’s prophets is not limited to the book of Exodus.
There is a part of us that seeks comfort, instant gratification, and the stability of the known. We cling to the comfort of systems of slavery that are killing us—that goes for the political left and the right.
What if the pain, stress, and even violence of this moment, can be transformed into a new way?
What if we have an opportunity to truly face our sins of slavery, genocide, white supremacy, greed and capitalism, patriarchy, heterosexism, and christian nationalism and supremacy?
What might be possible in this journey towards liberation?
What if this is an extinction burst—a temporary escalation in the intensity of maladaptive behavior, a sign that change is working?
What if the veil is being lifted—the obstructive evils being uncovered so that more people will know truth and know God?
Consider where you are audaciously and impatiently clinging to the comforts of systems of slavery. What is one step you could take to loosen your grip?
—Jenny Whitcher