Thoughts that challenge me.

From Practical Theology for Women:

While God certainly set up a just system protective of human rights in His instructions on government to Moses, I don’t see God as overly preoccupied by individual civil rights as He calls His children to some pretty glorious roads of obedience through suffering...
Ladies, it’s ok to let go of your rights. You can trust the One who judges justly to perhaps defend you, but to most definitely use you as you are spent like Christ for the furtherance of His kingdom. And THAT is freedom, my friends.

Jean on submission in practice:

The details will be different in every marriage, but one thing is certain: submission is an attitude which affects everything - thoughts, feelings, words, actions - every moment of every day.

This post is quite challenging. It still amazes me just how radically different Christian women are. This list is sometimes hard for me to swallow. Makes me realise how selfless one has to be in marriage and that there's no way you could do it on your own strength. I expect that you'd have to be appealing to God quite often to fill you with grace and patience. But what would I know, really.

And I like this:

In my mind, I baked cookies, but what nobody told me was, I really hate baking: then, now, and forever, amen. In my mind, I like the idea of baking and wearing an apron, though. The truth is I don’t own a checkered apron that ties in the back and has a pocket full of pinecones.

And now I'm wondering whether there are any blogs by younger, unmarried women. I like these thoughts on marriage and whatnot because they are helpful but... you know... I'm not quite there yet.

Purity? What about it?

I am becoming more and more frustrated by each new article I read on the following quote from Tony Abbott concerning pre-marital sex which he 'let slip' during an interview with the Australian Women's Weekly: ''I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question . . . it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don't give it to someone lightly, that's what I would say.''

It has provoked such indignant responses and has once and for all convinced me that sex has almost zero meaning in our secular and liberal society:

But in its own way, the Opposition Leader's description of virginity as ''the greatest gift you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving'' was nauseating. The comment both fetishes a woman's virginity and reduces her value to the presence of a hymen, to the unpenetrated state of her vagina. Why is that the greatest gift a woman can give someone? What about her mind? Her actions? Dare I say it, her soul? If I were one of Abbott's daughters I would be furious to have my value reduced to the state of my hymen.

Worse is the suggestion that our "greatest gift" is still just a sexual one. Not our intelligence, professional contributions, support, capacity to love, laugh, or just suffer through an entire Boxing Day Test match, but the giving of sex.

These women are fuming because they believe Abbott to be sexist and old-fashioned. I'm fuming because they would obviously think me a naive and ridiculous prude. Oh and religious nut. I'm just amazed at the way in which they write about sex. According to this last woman, purity is to be valued AFTER intelligence, professional contributions, support, capacity to love (this one really, really annoys me because obviously this writer has absolutely no clue as to the real meaning of love), laugh or willingness to suffer through cricket. And what exactly does the first writer presume to be the soul? How could purity, emotional and physical, not totally encompass that notion? If you've had several partners and shared yourself with them so intimately before you finally find "the one" what are you going to have left to give? What soul have you? What, I ask you?!

Oh, Carolyn McCulley, how right you are when you say that being a biblical woman in this world is a radical act.

Darn.

Have just noticed that the EQUIP book club is going through The Scarlet Letter. I bought a copy of it in the Philippines for $2.50 along with about ten or so other Penguin classics. Up to post number 6. Darn. Not that I couldn't just refer to the blogs later, but still.

Also, I am super excited about the EQUIP conference this year. The main talks are always great but the electives in particular seem wicked interesting:

Confessions of a Shopaholic - Carmelina Read on what the Bible has to say about retail therapy
The Fineprint of Feminism - Claire Smith opening our eyes to the influence of feminism (edging towards this one because Claire Smith makes you think)
Single minded - Dani Treweek on God's purpose for singleness
Love in hard places - Susan Shiner on how to love our enemies and those who hurt us
Answering back - Alison Napier on how to engage with skeptics and enquirers
EQUIP workout - Tara Thornley will host an elective for women considering full-time ministry that will allow them to meet women who are already serving in Australia and overseas

Thinking again, I've done a bit on feminism, singleness, apologetics, thinking about ministry... Love in hard places might be the most helpful for me. Either way, how good are these electives? There are more than usual and I love how they've really tried to make it relevant for women of all ages: "Whether you're a baby-boomer, Gen X, Gen Y or whatever, EQUIP10 will be talking to your generation." I thought that was cool because I've had a few chats to Isobel about girls around my age wondering whether EQUIP was for them because they weren't too keen on an elective on, I don't know, hospitality or something. But every woman should find something interesting this year :)

Political rant.

I have an on again/off again interest in Australian politics. I think it’s important to have, at the very least, a vague idea of who is running the country, what their policies are and what progress they have made while serving in office. My knowledge, if I may call it that, is furnished by a daily reading of The Australian (chosen because it is 75 cents on UNSW campus and because I believe it to be superior to the Telegraph except for the impossibility of attempting to read it on the train. Honestly, I could wallpaper half my house with just one page of The Australian) and sometimes switching on ABC1. Yet every time I insist on following politics and trying to develop some concrete political views of my own, I become intensely frustrated. Is it ever possible to find impartial reporting on the government and the opposition? I want to know who is standing for government, what they stand for, what policies they will introduce and what the consequences of their actions will be and I want to hear it from a source that isn’t already polluted by the author’s/producer’s own personal left or right wing bias. Impossible. It is impossible, I tell you. I think I understand where Descartes was coming from...

I also tend to stop following politics when I decide that I’ve just read too much about how flaky and just plain stupid politicians can be. I get disheartened and give up. I think, ordinarily, I’d be coming back to that point after trying to follow leadership fiascos in the federal opposition and state government and in the aftermath of Copenhagen still wondering whether Rudd is full of anything other than hot air and whether or not he has done anything significant since being elected (I think the verdict is still out on whether or not his stimulus package will be beneficial to Australia in the long-term, but even as I type this I’m wondering what source of information has been feeding that thought).

BUT, I have decided this time not to revert back to ignorance. Goodness, I still know very little but I hope to at least be anything other than completely ignorant. No matter how ridiculous and uninteresting politics may seem, I am extremely thankful that we do have a government that, for the most part, works for us. Nowhere in Australia will you find a politician culpable for the murder of 57 political rivals, their families and journalists. Nowhere in Australia will you find images of people fighting for the freedom of a democracy. Nowhere in Australia is the idea of an election synonymous with curfews and intimidation. People in the world today are willing to die for the freedom that we have – for the privilege that it is to scrutinise candidates and keep them honest, enter a polling booth and say without fear “I choose you”. Not to mention the insult that I personally think it is to the suffragettes of the early 20th century to turn around as a woman and care nothing for my vote.

I’m just terrified of being ignorant and taking for granted all of the freedoms that I have and I wish that more people felt the same.

An unusual dress code for a wedding.

Barefeet.

Yep. No shoes, please. And in Liverpool of all places. But my goodness it was a fantastic wedding. The first one I'd been to where the couple getting married were my peers and my friends.

For the first time, I came away from a wedding feeling encouraged. I was so happy for them, so thankful to God and so amazed by the blessings we have from him. He's just so good was my resounding thought. I was really happy that I felt this way, that I left content and praising God rather than lamenting the fact that I had no prospect of getting engaged in the near future. I'm only 20 years old, honestly, I have the rest of my life to be married to someone. I once read though that what most people want is a wedding. They want a day - a party, a dress, a walk down the aisle, friends and family and the anticipation of a wedding night. Marriage is another thing altogether. That's the part where you realise that that person is actually going to be there everyday and you need to love them, all of them, for as long as you both shall live. Girls fantasise over colour schemes and flowers and the music they'll dance to, not necessarily about what it looks like to submit to, respect and honour their husbands. I'm not sure if it's common for girls to daydream about marriage.

That being said, it's still a wonderful gift, a beautiful way in which two people can witness Christ's love for us and I'm looking forward to it - if it is God's plan for me.

Thinking about death.

I just came back from a memorial. A memorial for one of the girls who was in my sunday school class and in my group of youth group girls. I found out about her death while I was away. Horriffic circumstance. Yet, just now... I'm happy. maybe not happy. I don't know. Oh yes time to break out one of my favourite words: joyful. I'm joyful and I'm content. I mourned her loss. But I can't feel sad when I know the truth: to live is Christ and to die is gain. There was no need for sadness. Well yes, she won't be around to liven up my sunday school class anymore, but she trusted Jesus, his victory over death is now hers.

When I first found out, I went straight to scripture for comfort of course. 1 Corinthians 15: where, O death is your victory? where, O death is your sting? Those triumphant words. I could recite them all day long. The freedom and comfort they provide is inexpressible. A Christian funeral is a celebration.

And so I feel a great burden now. There are people very close to me, whom I love very much, who don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior. I don't know how I'd react to their death. I'd be a mess. I'd feel like I'd failed them. I can't ignore the reality any longer. There's no comfort in their death.

And so I'm encouraged, but it feels like I've also been reminded - or warned, almost. Life is short. Our purpose is to know God and serve him and once we do, we must spread that message. We are responsible.

So what am I doing about it?

Should we prioritise social justice or evangelism?

Some bloke named Steve Brown:

That’s a false dichotomy.

A follower of Christ doesn’t put on a “social justice” hat and then an “evangelism” hat and then try to discern which hat to wear the most and which hat is the most valuable. Why? Because it isn’t a hat; it’s the head and the heart. You can’t exchange either. They are integral to the person.

When a Christian sees someone who is physically hungry, a Christian feeds the hungry person. Why? Because hungry people can’t understand the plan of salvation? No. Simply because that person is hungry. That’s what Christians do. And if a person is spiritually hungry, a Christian becomes “one beggar telling another beggar where he or she found bread.” Why? Because that’s what Christians do.

Found amongst other opinions collected here.