Engage

Two single friends recently attended a teaching about an independent study of biblical femininity. Most of what they heard was fine, but the presenter was apparently so enthused about God's design for the female body that she elevated the roles of wife and mother beyond what was appropriate.

My single friends, one of whom is old enough that she will probably never marry and will definitely never have children, were shocked and angered. The over-enthusiasm for marriage and family meant that as single women, they both felt the shame of being "lesser-than."

           I made my first overseas flight without my parents in my twenties. I had just finished graduate school, and stayed with them until I could afford my own place. My parents had left for India weeks prior, and I would soon join them. I had visited India twice as a child—oblivious to the cultural differences between India and the US. No worries. My mother prepared (translation: warned) me via written “what to pack” instructions she left on a note taped to the bathroom mirror. “Lots of long dresses. Nothing sleeveless. No short skirts.” (Meaning nothing that showed my knees).

As I head into the fall semester, I’m updating some of my course bibliographies to include books published in the past year. Since the 2017–18 academic year, one of the best sources I’m adding is worth stopping to recommend: Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries. I know. It sounds academic. That’s because it is.

This is an updated repost of one of my most popular blogs. 

On March 7, 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from radar in flight and never was seen again. In 2018, the investigation of its disappearance ended with no one really knowing what happened to the plane with its passengers and crew. The families and friends of those missing are left to grieve and mourn the vanishing of their loved ones. 

The mysterious disappearance reminded me of the movie, “Left Behind.” That movie depicts the time when Jesus will return to collect all believing Christians from the earth and take them to heaven with Him. In the movie, the plane remained in flight with just some of its passengers missing—leaving behind clothing and jewelry and other earthly things. When that happens, will there be an intense investigation into what caused the people to vanish similar to what happened regarding the missing flight full of people? 

Jesus declared that he was definitely, positively, you-can-count-on-it-with-certainty coming back to earth to gather all of his followers across the planet—gather them to himself in the clouds. There’s no mistake about it. If Jesus said that was going to happen, it will! After all, he promised to his followers that he would be raised from the dead after being crucified. That happened! God keeps promises. 

It’s so easy to look down our 21st-century noses at the “primitive” peoples of biblical times, especially Israel’s problems with idolatry in the Old Testament. “WE don’t bow down before idols and false gods,” we think. “That was when people were less evolved intellectually and spiritually, but we modern people are so much better than that.”

I’m wondering if God agrees. I don’t think so.

Hagar, Genesis 16– An enslaved woman from Egypt serves Abraham and Sarah. When harsh treatment drives away, God sees and hears her. And she names him The God Who Sees.

Huldah, 2 Kings 22– When young King Josiah orders repairs of the LORD’s temple, the high priest finds a scroll. As the scribe reads it, the king mourns. Then he sends a delegation to the prophet Huldah to hear from God.   

I heard Jill Briscoe once say, “Women are a fear-driven, performance-oriented species.” She’s right. Fear is an ever-present emotion with us. Real fears and imagined fears. Is it realistic to think we can live without fear? No!

Fear is a normal human emotion designed by God to alert us to danger so that we will take action against it. Yet, fear can take root in us and cause us to give way to panic and hysteria. God knows this about us. I am so grateful for that. And, one thing I have learned through the years of walking by faith is that God is bigger than anything that causes me fear.