If you scroll down a couple posts, you’ll see a comment from Dawn, who’s wrestling with church roles. She’s been on my mind a lot lately because I think her note personifies exactly what a lot of us go through in various forms, in various ways. I’ve been wanting to respond to her–you, if you’re reading!–but, of course, me being the lazy blogger that I am, I’ve gotten swamped under the demands of work that pays cold hard cash and, of course, that which pays warm, wet kisses (I mean mothering!).
But I thought of Dawn when I read these words from Carolyn Custis James’ new, fantabulous book, The Gospel of Ruth. In fact, I thought of Dawn, and I thought of myself and every woman I’ve talked to, heard from, or exchanged e-mails with over the course of this true-identity-seeking year. If you’ve wrestled with your “place” in your church, community, or family, hear this:
“A woman’s high calling as God’s image bearer renders her incapable of insignificance, no matter what has gone wrong in her life or how much she has lost. Even if her community shoves her aside, turns a deaf ear to the sound of her voice, or regards her as invisible—even if she is forced into a passive role in the community—she remains vital to God’s purposes and is a solid contributors anyway. She simply cannot be stopped.”
I love that. Of course, it’s something, if we know Jesus and we know he made us on purpose, we know deep down, but a lot of people try to drown that bit of wisdom, try to stop us from living out God’s purposes, so it can be hard to believe.
Dawn, I hope I can talk more later about the whole church-role thing because I have BIG issues here as well. In the meantime, check out “My Door-Slamming Church” at this site and “Let Men Get the Door” at GiftedForLeadership.com. You’ll get the drift of my issues there.
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