What is the one thing you feel you can't say in church?
That is a pregnant question with multiple burdensome answers. Yet author Anne Jackson asks the hard questions and records the sometimes difficult answers for us to read. With an openness that most people would shrink from, she shares her own struggles in searching for a way to speak about topics that are "unmentionable" in church. The things people want to hide in their closets and pretend they don't exist.
It is so easy for us to hide behind our stained glass masquerade and pretend...act as if life is fine, when life is anything but fine and we are crumbling on the inside. You know it's easy to do. We all do it.
Permission to Speak Freely doesn't give a specific outline on how to walk into a church and boom...begin the difficult conversations. It does offer hope. It does show that there are other people in this world with the same questions, feelings, comments. It lets us know we are not alone. It shows there is healing in confession.
"...you have a story. And this story is made up of your past and present and future, and many things color it."
Ultimately, your story, my story, may help someone else. Prevent mistakes. Defeat loneliness. Allow healing. However, we will never know if our story could help someone else, if we don't break through the self-imposed barriers of the church. If we don't speak freely.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
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