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Joshua Brown
Liberty stood up at the front of the class. There were no children, just empty desks with Bibles laid out neatly. Sunday School was tomorrow but she wanted so bad to be a good teacher that she was praying and preparing for her class early. The big window looked out over the church courtyard where families would gather and fellowship, but today it was just an empty yard of paving stones quietly decorated with trees and potted flowers.
She already had prepared her lesson. Today she was just making sure the room was clean, the feltboard had all of the people and props to clearly tell the story, and the plants were watered and lively.
She reached down into the drawer and pulled out a feather duster. On top of the filing cabinet where she kept the felt figures, she began to dust and the sunlight from the midafternoon sun left nothing to the imagination as far as the dust was that had settled on the furniture since she had dusted last week.
Gable peeked in.
Liberty liked Gable, he was one of the other Sunday School teachers and had been for several years. He too took his class with gravity and austerity. Also he looked quite fearsome. He was as tall as the door! She knew Gable quite well actually, for they also had been engaged several years before.
Gable had been in a terrible accident. He had been struck by a car and been in critical condition for several months. He finally pulled through but, and after continued severe tinnitus, he had attempted suicide.
The terrible circumstances had culminated in her breaking off the engagement, not out of some disrespect or disdain for him, but for her own space and under the wise counsel of her church.
Briefly they exchanged pleasantries and talked about her friend Joy's baby shower which had taken place the night before. Gable had regathered himself this last year but he knew that time was running out, especially since most of their friends had already started having children in the last two years. He had not asked Liberty to stay single.
Grief overcame him and he hurriedly said his goodbyes.
Liberty sat in her own frustration with his avoidance and manipulative pretenses. She could no longer stay in this empty spiritual space where she permitted herself to stay silent about her own less-than-overt lies by omission but subtly held Gable to account for his passivity.
She dashed out the door of the room, and down the hall. She carefully poured out her heart with passion and directness, but he continued to escalate into stranger and stranger perversions of justification and lies about his own feelings. She kept pushing though, further into her gentle but insistent wisdom until finally he snapped back in a relationship marking quote. She thanked him and returned to her room.
The weight of a thousand grand pianos felt lifted from her, for the last several years had been basically an impasse for her emotionally.
About a year ago, she had started to attend a Bible seminary a good hour away from her home church and it had changed everything about her schedule and friendships. In fact, there were a few church members who had said overtly that that seminary was corrupting the youth and that the pastor who oversaw that ministry was helping the devil make hell more populated.
Most of the friends that she had grown up with had entirely ignored her calls or not shown up to lunches. Even her own family had stopped including her in their group chats and new get-togethers formed that just didn't happen to include her.
For the first few months she had assumed that it was because she had broke off the engagement with Gable, but as time went on she realized that it was because, fundamentally, she had started de-normalizing the constant excuses and justifications for sin that had been common for her growing up.
She looked back out the window and saw Joy and her child dancing in the church courtyard.
This was impossible, Joy was pregnant just last night. Liberty did a double take and, no one was in the courtyard, just the leaves shimmering in the slight warm breeze of the summer sun.
Liberty smiled and picked up her Bible, she held it closely to her breast and whispered A Prayer of Renewal.
O LORD, may truth and wisdom prevail. May the enemies of God be silenced and may the conversation of the righteous be renewed in holiness. Restore unto the childless a blessing. Unto the poor may a light be given that the name of God may be spoken among the heathen. Hear, O LORD, and in the hand of the mighty men renew that rod which budded, that the widow and the barren may know, that it is God which renews and refreshes even unto the conclusion of the hour.
#story #morality #philosophy #religion #heroesjourney #deathofavision #relationships #breakup
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📅 Published March 2, 2025
📍 Written in Aurora, Colorado at Joshua's home
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If it took Moses 40 years in the wilderness, divorced and removed from his society, family, friends and religion, why do we assume that it's going to be easy for us to find our moral base layer? It will take much more than most are willing to walk.
But if Sarah laughed, then may we in great gravity take action to raise our children in the principles of truth and virtue.
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