baptist hymnal

My Burden Gladly Bearing

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How do we protect those we love from those who question their very worth, their humanity, their right to exist? How do we protect ourselves from that constant batt-le?

Bears are pretty powerful all by themselves, but sometimes armor is called for. Bears have claws and poundage and teeth and jaws. But these are bears I found inside music–and they work differently. In the Bible, Paul talks about putting on the armor of God–and describes breastplates of righteousness, helmets of salvation, sword of the spirit, etc. Far be it from me to edit SAINT Paul– known for his perfect wisdom about what to do with women in the church, about singleness, about sexuality– but I’m going to anyway.

The bears I had didn’t defend me by attacking others; they defended me by empowering me and equipping me with better armor, better defensive structures.

They gave me a Helmet of Empathy– a way to see others struggling to see me, a way of understanding where they were coming from so that I could see them as worthy of love too; frankly, a helmet of Salvation further divides us into “saved” and “unsaved,” worthy and unworthy. Empathy makes us all worthy of being saved, protected, understood.

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Bear Me Safely Over

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Bear Me Safely Over

In my new job, as a tarot reader (spiritual life coach), I meet a lot of people who have barely survived evangelical churches. A lot. Many of them are queer like me. Others may not be queer, but they too got judged, hurt, ostracized, and/or punished for years by a church.

Our shop, The Sacred Owl and Salt Room is a sanctuary and a destination for people in East Tennessee who want to still connect to their spirituality and their faith but they don’t know if a church and steeple should come with that faith. And that’s completely understandable. Who goes back to the places that hurt you? Or even the ones that look like those places? However, something is still calling to them, and they don’t know what it is, but they want to hold on to part of the faith they were brought up in, but leave behind the exclusion, the judgement.

They want a God who is strong enough to hold them, but loving enough not to hurt them.

They want this for themselves and they want this for their kids.

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All Our Griefs to Bear

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“All Our Griefs to Bear,” Jerome Stueart, (11 x 17), watercolor, mixed media on paper. Part of the Bears in the Baptist Hymnal series.

Bears were symbols for the protection I felt through music–through singing the word, “bear,” every Sunday, as if God were speaking to me and sending me strength. It helped guard me against the criticisms I received or the feelings of doubt. I wish all our LGBTQ folks still in conservative, evangelical churches, in communities and towns and cities full of evangelical church goers, this kind of protection–whether they, like me, need to mentally imagine a bear protecting them, or whether they need us to be that protection. Be the shield. Be the Bear. Be the physical, verbal, soulful protection they need to survive the horde of negative onslaught in their daily lives, in the news, in legislative and judicial places. They need us to stand with them, shield them. They too are holy. They too are divine. They need to be protected. Be the shield, be the bear, be the protection that bears their grief, bears with them the barbs and arrows aimed at them, strengthens them with presence and love so they can find safety at this time.