Take Back Your Life

Sisters, we matter! How many times have you heard someone say, “I need to take back my life.” I have said it myself, many times. Life is not always a fight, although many times it seems to be, especially for women. There is the frequent fight within us to be who we are, to throw off the unrealistic expectations people may have of us, to become the persons we are meant to be.

Our stories are sung by many of our sisters . . . Sara Bareilles who sings, “Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly I wanna see you be brave,”

And her refrain from King of Anything, “Who cares if you disagree? You are not me. Who made you king of anything? So you dare tell me who to be? Who died and made you king of anything?”

Singer-songwriter Mary Lambert cuts through the clichés and gets to the hard truth of self-acceptance:

They tell us from the time we’re young
To hide the things that we don’t like about ourselves,
Inside ourselves.
I know I’m not the only one who spent so long attempting to be someone else.
Well I’m over it.

And then there is the song of Rachel Platten, Fight Song, that says,

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I’m alright song
My power’s turned on
Starting right now I’ll be strong
I’ll play my fight song
And I don’t really care if nobody else believes
‘Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me

They sing a story much like our own story, a story of vulnerable, yet strong, women who have never stopped believing in themselves in spite of those who would try to bring us down.

But, you might ask, why do we need a “take back my life song?” We need one because others try to tell us who to be and how to be. We need one because most of us were raised to defer to others always. We need one because we shrink back from giving our own opinion about things. We need one because we are strong women who have been tamed for too long.

We need a “take back my life song” because we must begin to reclaim our own power and use that power to change the world, to live out our calling from God, to accept our role as messengers of hope and laborers for peace, to live out our enormous capacity to love and care for others, and to challenge evil when we see it. Our world needs us now, more than ever,

We have some standing up to do. In the meantime, sisters, we matter! So consider where you are and how you feel about yourself. Consider your place in the world, and if you need to, take back your life. Lots of sisters are rooting for you!