OK - I may be dreaming about the young part.Why do I do it? Let myself be undermined time and again by guys whom I know I could run rings round? I may be all but invisible to them (obviously visible enough for them to feel threatened) but, thankfully, I am not invisible to God. God who created my inward parts, who fashioned me together in my mothers womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139)God who has given me gifts to use, gifts that complement my gender, not deny it.
Today's church needs a diversity of gifts, from male and female, working alongside each other, respecting the others wholeness and integrity, creating space for growth and sharing. Such was God's intention. Too bad that some men feel they know better than God!
Oh, you are certainly not invisible to God! And believe me, in spite of what it sometimes feels like, those who shout loudest are not necessarily the ones who are heard in the long term. Just keep doing your thing with integrity and the only One who matters will notice. (...together with a few of us mere mortals who know just how creative you can be.)
ReplyDeleteOh sweet Liz, my heart aches for you as a sister who knows your struggle. Praying for you with confidence that God will bless you somehow through all of this.
ReplyDeleteIt's just so stinkin' hard sometimes...
Mmm.. One step forward, two steps back. Its good to be able to "journal" like this and share the pain and frustration. Even better to have readers like you who encourage and affirm. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteblessings
Liz
I work in a Diocese where there are still many who don't accept the ordination of women to the prebyterate, let along the episcopate in the Church of England. I wonder how some of our women clergy cope with some of the things that are said, implied or done to them. Stay with it, Liz, the blokes need you more than they know.
ReplyDeleteFor Pete's sake, Liz, don't you know that the penis is *essential* to the vocation of Christian leadership! Didn't they teach you *anything* in college?
ReplyDeleteYou blogged the other day about God's sense of humour. Keep smiling and don't let the dinosaurs grind you down.
Blessings
FBL.
By the way, I've always found Genesis 1:27 helpful on this:
ReplyDelete27. So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him; *male and female he created them*.
Male and female there within God, neither fully expressing the whole, but together bringing a more rounded image of the divine.
The crap that's talked about gender within the Godhead sometimes, as though God could ever be desribed in single-gendered terms (with the incarnation an honourable exception).
FBL
Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteI have found those words from the movie The Mission so encouraging to me in discerning my calling.
"If it is Gods will you will have
Gods blessing, and if you have His then mine will hardly seem significant."
It may seem strange,but it rings true with me, perhaps it will with you. What we know to be from God we cannot deny. Its part of the walk of faith to be tested, so I pray you will persevere.