The Words We Wear

My most comfy sweater,

does it protect me from the weather?

Or from lies others have said about me,

thoughts that I have allowed to percolate,

getting stronger and blacker until I

feel like I'm suffocating, or drowning,

in a suit of armor of my own making.

What if, instead of wearing the mud

others sling on me; I allow it to sit...

and dry, without taking it inside of me,

or rubbing it into my heart.

In that moment of truth,

when someone I love, in their bitterness,

tries to feed me their mudpie, I look to Jesus.

For it is Christ's righteousness that I wear now,

not my own. Even though, as I stand in the world,

before people, what they say about me may look true to them.

The names that they have given me

are not true in the eyes of my Father.

As Jesus leans in and whispers,

"This is my sister, remember?", God says,

"I haven't forgotten. Let's go remind her."

So, the sweater I'm wearing today

doesn't have to protect me from the sharp barbs

of other's words.

Christ died so that I can wear it.

As for dried mud? It's a great exfoliate.

When you stop answering to the old names, they stop having power over you.

Hosanna Wong