The best rebellion is living joyfully – by Anna Price

Artwork by *Sophie Killingley Perish and Fade*

Some seem to glide through life perhaps without a care in the world, good things happen to them, they ‘just’ fall in love or easily find success.

But those who have a need to rebel are not drifting through life easily. Rather, they experience a deep dissatisfaction. They are faced with something that is disturbing or infuriating. They have fight on their hands; there is something to which they will not succumb nor merely wrestle.

No – they will take decisive action against it. Their life is an act of rebellion.

The behavioural health therapist, Jane Pernotto Ehrman, says:

“No one really likes being told what to do…Everyone has some form of inner rebel that likes to question or do the opposite of what we’re told.”

I find this somewhat comforting! Yet, it is noticeable that the more people become personally acquainted with injustice, suffering or marginalisation, the more some will use their feelings of frustration, distaste and dissatisfaction to deviate; they will find they have the grounds and strength to fight.

Choices for rebels

There are many options for a rebellious life, ranging from an inner refusal to succumb to a threat, to bigger, proactive acts of uprising. Some rebels will chew themselves up with their bitterness, blame or anger for the injustices they experience.

Others will turn on those they find to blame and spread destructive behaviour as they go. But Sophie Killingley makes a plea in her artwork for another way.

In my interview with her, she reveals she has found herself asking,

‘What’s the best the way to rebel without destroying my soul?’

Coming out of her own relational pain and disillusionment with the church, she found herself in danger of letting her anger and resentment mean she was losing the treasure she had found in Jesus. She had to make a choice; a choice that came across as necessitated by her personal, gritty pursuit of Christ. In a vociferous tone she was resolved to those who hurt her, ‘Don’t take Jesus from me!’.

Joy in unexpected places

Consumed by the injustice and her refusal to be beaten by it, she has learned to model herself on Jesus the ultimate rebel, and turn the strength of those feelings into a choice to courageously fight for justice, for herself and for others, and to do so replacing bitterness with joy.

In Sophie’s artwork she looks for childlikeness, vibrancy and colour, whilst communicating unsaid but pertinent truths for life- and she sees in all those things, Jesus, her greatest joy-bringer.

Inspirational friends spring to my mind, who live out this kind of joyful rebellion. Their rebellion seems to be triggered by their acute personal life struggles. Whether it be chronic illness, isolation, depression, war, hurt, disability, abuse, poverty or other forms of deep injustice. Facing the darkness head on, acknowledging it without diminishing it, staring it in the face and grieving it. Somehow in doing so, I see how each confront these heavy experiences, not with despair or retaliation but, with determined joy.

Resolutely battling

They fight by spotting injustice of all kinds and resolutely battling it in any small way they can. And, along the way, they tune themselves into a whole variety of unremarkable people, moments and activities; highlighting the neglected and discovering joy.

Satisfaction arises in those unexpected places, such as the poppies wavering along the roadside, the reminiscences of the dementia sufferer, the discovery of music long ignored, the smile of a child with downs syndrome or the humanity spotted in the eyes of a homeless man. But Jesus said in Luke 14:12-14:

“When you hold a lunch or dinner invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.”

Little they may seem to offer, but much they give. The kingdom of God is found by many to be wonderfully upside down in this way.

The deepest joy is often found in those unexpected places. And the best rebellion lies there.

Anna Price is Community Strategic Manager at St Mary Magdalene Church Gorleston. She, her husband Matthew and their church, are passionate about being transformed and transforming their community, with the extraordinary love of Christ. Follow @magdalenechurchgorleston on Facebook

To see more of the artwork of Sophie Killingley, check out Perish and Fade