This week we heard the prophets name a God who rejects a peace built on the silence of the hurting. Here is your exhale.
Blessed are you who were taught that your silence was holiness — it was only ever quiet, and you are allowed to speak.
Blessed are you who kept the peace at your own expense, who swallowed the truth to keep the room calm: the God of the prophets never asked that of you, and never once mistook your silence for peace.
Blessed are you who were told you were divisive for naming what was done to you — you are not the breaker of the peace. You are, in the oldest and truest word, its repairer.
Blessed are you who are only beginning to speak, whose voice still shakes, whose throat still tightens: your voice is holy, and it was always meant to exist.
May justice roll down over your life like clean water this week. May the parts of you that were bound into silence come loose. May you know that the freedom Jesus preached was always meant for you.
You are free to speak. You are free to rest. You are loved, exactly as you are.
Rest now. The work will keep till Monday.