Redeemed

Violence will never redeem anything.

Only love can do that.

Don't be confused about

the part of crucifixion that saves us.

When the privilege of carrying a weapon

is overwhelmed by the need to carry it,

freedom is no longer in the picture. 

Force is not a tool of independence,

but servitude, and neither side

of the fulcrum will find release.

Squeezing the trigger won't make you

free any more than squeezing the life

out of a bird will make you fly.

Anything that can be protected

by harming someone/thing else

is not connected to liberty;

it is, instead, a slavery of choice.

Redemption will only arrive

when we let love choose us.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins