Living Through the Cracking of a Myth
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” —John 8:32
There are moments in history when it feels like the very architecture of reality is cracking apart. Not just political structures or cultural norms, but the deep stories—the myths—that hold our sense of meaning together.
Lucky us that we live in such a time.
The MAGA movement, and the Christian nationalist ideology that animates it, is not just pushing policies or fighting culture wars. It’s fighting for the survival of a myth. The myth says there is a divine order to the world: Men lead, women serve, and everything in nature—including human nature—has a fixed place. Time moves forward in a straight line toward progress, and that progress depends on control through domination. God is king, hierarchy is sacred, and deviation is dangerous.1 When that order is threatened, the fear isn’t just cultural—it’s cosmological.
When MAGA people say, “Make America Great Again,” it is more than nostalgia for a simpler time. It is a desperate attempt to resurrect a totalizing fantasy that never truly existed—but that, for a time, held enormous power. Now that power is unraveling.
When dominant systems feel themselves unraveling, they do not surrender quietly. They scramble to restore order. And that desperation shows up in familiar forms:
Moral panic: “Something is corrupting our children, our families, our civilization.”
Boundary enforcement: “Here’s who belongs. Here’s who doesn’t.”
Scapegoating: “Blame them, so we don’t have to look at what’s truly broken.”
In this frame, ideas of inclusion and diversity are corrupting our children, brown-skinned and non-English speaking people don’t belong, and blame for all of our woes can be placed at the feet of LGBTQ and black people, as well as all women.
It’s an old lie. Why is it all falling apart now? Because the story required suppression to hold. It demanded silence from the marginalized. It demanded conformity in the name of discipline. It required the myth of innocence, the denial of harm, the erasure of complexity.2 But the myth is cracking—not because of rebellion, but because of truth. The truth that people are more complex than binaries. That nature is not a hierarchy, but a web. That God is not a monarch in the sky, but Presence moving in all things. That history is not a march toward purity but a dance of unfolding mystery.
This collapse is painful. But it is also holy.
It’s what theologian Dorothee Sölle once described as “God’s revolution”—the undoing of what never should have been.3 The Spirit doesn’t shore up myths. It breaks them open. It liberates us from illusions that bind, even when those illusions are familiar.
So we find ourselves in the wilderness—between the world that was and the one not yet born. This is not a comfortable place. But it is the place where the Spirit does some of its best work, the place where we are invited to become midwives of a deeper truth: Love cannot be legislated away, dignity cannot be destroyed by empire, and our humanity is not defined by myths of order but by our capacity to embrace each other in the mess and mystery of becoming.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
What myths have you inherited about how the world “should” be ordered? Where do those stories live in your body?
How are you being called to live in the space between collapse and emergence—with honesty, courage, and love?
Who are the people in your life or community who are modeling new ways of being, beyond the old binaries and hierarchies?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer at the Threshold
O Holy Presence,
who moves not in fortresses but in wilderness,
not in certainty but in love—
Be with us as the old myths collapse.
Give us courage to face the unraveling,
to name what is false,
to release what is no longer life-giving.
Protect those who have always been targeted
by the myths of power and purity.
Strengthen those who live and love
outside the lines.
Help us to become midwives of a truer story—
one woven with dignity, justice, humility,
and joy.
Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Making Room for a New Story
Today, spend time reflecting on one “myth” you were taught—about gender, power, nation, success, or God. Write down the story as you were taught it. Then gently ask: What parts feel true? What parts feel constrictive? What has it cost to live inside this story? Who has been harmed?
Now imagine a different story. One rooted in freedom, humility, and interdependence. What does that version of the world look like? What might your life look like inside that new story?
Let this be a sacred act of revision—of unlearning what harms and remembering what heals. Collapse is not the end. It’s the compost for something more beautiful to grow.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
May 19-22, 2025 - Preaching and Worship FREE Online Summit: From war to genocide to a global climate crisis to a nation that perpetuates racism, misogyny, transphobia, and more from the highest office in the land, how do we prepare a sermon, a liturgy, a song, a prayer? Learn from some of our best preachers. REGISTER HERE.
June 4, 2025, 12pm ET - Jeff Chu has written a new book on a topic close to my heart: Soil! The title is “Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand.” I am so pleased to be interviewing him. Together, we’ll explore what it means to cultivate “good soil” in our lives, our communities, and our spiritual practices. I hope you will register. Your registration includes a copy of his new book.
July 20-25, 2025 - The Art of Wilding: A 5-Day Expedition in Wyoming for Women Leaders. Click here to learn more. Only one spot left!
August 11, 2025, 2pm ET - Dr. Andrew Root and I will be hosting a 6 part series on Spirituality in the Secular Age based on his research. The dates are August 11, 18, September 8, 15, and October 6, 13. Mark your calendars! More on this soon.
September 4, 4:30pm ET - I will be collaborating with the Anderson Forum for Progressive Theology to host a conversation with Thomas Jay Oord on Open and Relational theology. It’s a FREE event. Register here.
October 15-18, 2025 - Converging 2025: Sing Truth Conference (all musicians invited!) at Northwest Christian Church in Columbus, OH. Register here!
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/myth-redemptive-violence-2017-05-01/?gad_source=2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwy46_BhDOARIsAIvmcwPEp0LROGUWMcW7oLJupRjxvZICD90e-HU_rHUrBjFi0d09SGytpqoaAnsWEALw_wcB
https://dailymeditationswithmatthewfox.org/2023/01/10/dorothee-soelle-on-the-revolution-of-jesus/
'Cracking' and 'Light' remind me of Canadian poet/prophet/musician Leonard Cohen's poem/song ANTHEM:
The birds they sang at the break of day
“Start again”, I heard them say:
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah, the wars they will be fought again,
the holy dove, she will be caught again,
bought and sold and bought again
the dove is never free.
We asked for signs, the signs were sent
the birth betrayed, the marriage spent,
Yeah, the widowhood of every government
signs for all to see.
I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud,
but they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.
You can add up the parts, you won’t have the sum,
you can strike up the march, there is no drum,
Every heart, every heart to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring,
forget your perfect offering,
there is a crack, a crack in everything
that’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in,
that’s how the light gets in.
Here is the video recording of today’s meditation. Thank you Rev Cameron for giving me permission to record these.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP82tn3am/