Brazen: The Courage to Find the You That's Been Hiding

by Leeana Tankersley

The Soul Bullies are the ancestors of that insipid garden snake, slithering around me until they turn me upside down and inside out and shake the treasure right out of me. They scare me off, rattle me to the point that I no longer have any idea who I’m supposed to be listening to. What is God’s voice? What is my soul voice? What is the bully’s voice?

you ever feel like this? Something true inside you is trying to emerge—pressing up from the depths—but because it feels sacred and mysterious and wildly free and therefore gloriously dangerous, some dark and tormenting Soul Bully is immediately on your case. A desire, whisper, longing, stirring is welling up, but so is fear, so is an unnerving anxiety. A bully is lurking, and you find yourself in what could best be described as a soul tug-of-war. You find yourself skeptical of

Not only is it good. It is God-in-you good. It is the part of you that longs for truth, beauty, breath, home, love. It is the part of you that notices sunsets and holds a baby close to smell his neck and longs to rescue those who do not know freedom. It is the part of you that sees with eternal eyes and feels with divine intuition. It is the part of you that is both complete and becoming. It is the you and the me that is fiercely free.

“Your crown has been bought and paid for. Put it on your head and wear it.”3 So I go to the patio, I confront the serpentine

I’m tired of the story of deception, shame, hiding. I’m ready for a different cycle, a new trajectory. It is time. Time to reach down into the annals of your being and explore all the dimensions of who and what God knit there. It is time to come out of hiding. Let’s go after what’s been silenced, hidden, lost, bruised, abused, abandoned, bullied. Let’s do it together, sisters, linking arms and heading into the fray. “Leeana,”

himself gave us dominion. He entrusted us with influence, responsibility, and authority. He gave us charge. He put us on this planet and said, “Here you go. Enjoy. Work your magic.” He literally gave us a world and gave us the right and privilege of naming everything