we are family…

Family is an interesting thing.

Sometimes family is wonderful.  You share traditions, memories, traits and history.  There are things that have been built and established over time.  Even as families grow and extend (think aunts, uncles and cousins) there is still a shared ‘family tree’…the root system from which you sprung. There is identity.

463392640_e8e5a0051c_bAnd yet SURELY there are differences.  Differences that can no more be denied or ignored than the fact that there is day and night.  Sometimes, the differences are neither right nor wrong, good nor bad…just different.  Even when the differences are innocuous, they can still be frustrating, irritating, and frankly sometimes even embarrassing. 

And yet…

Continue reading

femfest…what I learned

Yesterday was supposed to be the final day of FemFest, but as usual, I’m a little late to the party.  Oh well…I can live with it.  One thing I’m learning…slowly but surely…is that if I’m going to make this blogging-thing work, I have to control it, and it cannot control me.  The world will not implode without my measly little post being published…I get that…believe me, I *so* get that.

So, better late than never, here it is…

feminisms-fest-badgeToday’s conversation starter is this:

What surprised you this week? What did you take away from the discussion? What blog posts did you find particularly helpful? What questions do you still have?

One thing that surprised me is that there are so many tentative feminists like myself.  So many who are completely sold out to the the idea of equality, as set forth and promoted by Jesus and the Bible, and yet still feel the need to ‘clarify’.  (Yes, I realize some disagree with that very basic premise, that Jesus and the Bible set forth equality.  That’s okay.  I absolutely believe it to be true and will write here from the standpoint of it as a given.)  I was encouraged that plenty of others, like myself, still cringe and pull away from the militancy of extremists…be they feminist extremists or christian extremists.

Continue reading

Beyonce, girl power and redemption

For as much as the past days have felt like I was looking through a lens that caused everything to seem blurry, I finally have that same feeling that you get at the eye doctor’s, when they finally click to the correct lens for you, and the infamous “How about now?” is finally answered with a “Yes!  Yes, that’s much better!

As I wrestled and attempted to sort things out, I discovered that, for me, the topics that I mentioned yesterday that have been swirling around the blogosphere have sort of snowballed and morphed into one big, tangled ball of yarn, and in order to fairly and accurately process them, they need to be broken down into bite-sized pieces, and addressed individually.  So here we go.

Today I will simply address the latest ‘hot topic’ buzzing around the Christian corners of the Net…Beyonce’s performance at the Super Bowl.  While some are vehemently defending the display, still other Christians have begged the question why this even needs to be talked about.  For them, it is quite clear…it was impure and lustful, end of discussion.  And I understand, and on some levels could almost easily and readily agree.  It would be the easy thing to do, that’s for sure.

However, again…if our aim in our culture is to do more than stick our heads in the sand and “hang on, while the world goes to hell in a handbasket”…if we want to actually have influence in our world in the direction of redemption… then we must be willing to engage, understand and delve into the issues our society faces. 

Unfortunately, the stark reality is, we have so lost our bearings as a sex-soaked society, that we are really far beyond giving ‘pat’, black-and-white answers.  They are unhelpful, and seem trite.  They ignore the real stories, the real hurts and the real injustices that are at the root of what drives people, and our society in general.  In order to offer anything right, healthy, or healing…we must first understand what is wrong, hurting or broken.

We can’t claim to offer a solution if we don’t actually understand the problem.

Continue reading

why it matters

I felt like maybe I should take a moment, and today’s post, to sort of ‘back the truck up’ a bit, and give some explanation as to why I think the discussions we have been having here about marriage, and submission, and authority, and all that good stuff really…and the discussions that will come in the future…REALLY matter.

Maybe I should start by giving some background where I’m coming from, and why I’m endeavoring to do what I’m doing, so it doesn’t seem like I’m just being a general rabble-rouser, looking to stir up an argument.

It’s more than that. Continue reading

the little blonde with the blueberry eyes

Almost weekly, as I play piano and sing with our worship team, I am reminded why I need to step up, and into, all that God has called me to be, and that if I pull back, if I shy away, there will be an effect.  Not a huge, life-altering effect, mind you…but an effect none the less.  My life…and yours…speaks a message.  We may, or may not, know who we are ‘speaking’ to.

I know one person my life is speaking to.

Not because she tells me, but because nearly every week, as I’m worshiping, I glance out, and am grabbed by her watching gaze.  I feel very aware that as I speak forth words of encouragement, or pray, or give myself to abandoned praise, there is a set of the the biggest, bluest eyes fixed on me, taking in my words, my actions.  I sometimes am gripped by the sense that she is a little girl, who, unlike myself, is growing up seeing women all around her respond to their God-given call to lovingly co-reign with men in the Kingdom of God.  Seeing women who, yes, give birth and cook and clean…but also create, debate and preach.  We are not only the women who meet for “Ladies’ Bible Study”, but who also wrestle the word of God with the men, and deliver it to the congregation of brothers and sisters with equal authority and passion.  We are living this concept of co-heirs to a next generation in ways that previously were not familiar to me.

And these eyes…these big blueberry eyes…watch, I imagine, with thoughts of how God will use her.  Where she will one-day take her place in ministry to the Body of Christ.  Will she teach?  Will she sing?  Will she intercede?  Will she minister to the physical needs of someone hurting?

Of course, I know that my life actually speaks to many, on different levels, as all our lives do.  My life speaks to my own children, but to my chagrin, they see the convoluted, struggling side of my journey.  They hear my pleas of “can we just not mention to _____ that I am a pastor, pleeeease??”.  They see me pull back from conversations where I think my input is not necessarily welcomed.  They see me in my moments of brokenness and frustration.  And I do realize, all these things will form…for the good or the bad…some parts of them.  I pray often that God’s grace will cover my shortcomings in these areas.  That he will use my weakness to bring strength to them in some way.  They see me in the messy, everydayness of life.

But the little blonde with the blueberry eyes…she sees me a bit differently, I think.

I have to add, this little one and I also share a connection of ‘difference’.  She, the only blonde among brunette sisters, same as I (she knows this, because her beautiful mama is my sister…so I tell her she gets her light locks from me).  She, the only softball player among cheerleader sisters, knows about my own passion for baseball.   I hope that maybe she senses from me that it’s okay to like things that might not be considered 150% girlie…the same way I feel about my interest in theological discussions and debates.  She, I think, if I don’t chicken-out, can learn from me that it’s okay to wear pink and still show up to the “boys’ club”.

the little blonde with blueberry eyes

And somehow, though I don’t know if she will ever preach or teach, or if her giftings lie elsewhere, she can learn from me to give yourself to whatever God calls you to, even if it’s a little bit different, with wholehearted passion…but only if I don’t pull back, shy away or give up.

 Courage.  Not just for me, but also for those little blueberry eyes watching me.  You see, the things God calls us to are rarely just for us.  There’s always those coming behind.  Always someone else drinking in the message of our lives.

 Who’s coming behind, and what are watching eyes learning from you?