It's a rare thing that I miss work (please don't think it noble - it is so much work to lesson plan when away that it's easier to show up even while mildly sick), but for a conference with some incredible Bible teachers, I didn't hesitate nor hem nor haw about burning my last two personal days on sitting under teaching that I knew would help my weak understanding of things. What was fantastic about this conference was being with my church family as well. A massive group of members from my church attended - not even at the behest of the church itself but simply because we are people who want to hear God's word and God's word preached.
I wanted to distill some of the things I came away with in my heart and share those things because I think they may be of value to other women interested in going deeper in God's word. These are my own feelings, so please do not feel pressure that I feel if it is not for you. But I want to share just the same.
1) Women have a great responsibility to the Church for the Gospel of Christ - this has a vast many contexts not limited to wife and mother. I hope other single women like me hear that - you may have many roles, but the greatest defining characteristic is not what you do or who you are to others but Whom you have been called to worship. Women can and do evangelize other women, and they should. Women can and do teach other women, and they ought. I love what Dr. Paul Washer said this weekend - that women could arguably be the most unreached people group - SO MANY are illiterate. Those women cannot read the word for themselves, and the implications of that for future generations are huge. Envision women empowered to read God's word and teach those under their care - children, family members, students, etc. There is so much that a woman can do that has gotten lost in the discussion of what little the Bible says they can't. I was reminded of God's provision for women, as leaders in their own lives, when He tells the Hebrew people that a father's inheritance should not be entailed away on account that he has no sons. That is RADICAL considering the things we women read in 18th and 19th century European literature. God has given us serious duty to uphold His word in the Church, care for, support, and minister those whom God has given us, and walk according to a way that honors Him. And I say all this with the deep conviction of my own sin weighing heavily on me that I have not been diligent in fulfilling my duty of others first in my own heart. There is so much we can do!
2) One of the great and awesome privileges that women can undertake that, to my mind, is neglected in this instant gratification world, is interceding for churches to be planted in the mission field. The theme of this year's G3 conference was missions. So often we again are consumed with what we cannot do, that we neglect the mighty thing we can: pray. We can pray. God was laying this on my heart over and over again this weekend as time well-spent for missions. As a woman, I will never plant a church - and I'm relieved, honestly. But I felt the great need for intercessors to pray for men who will - that God raises them up and that He keeps them honorable in their endeavors. In my overactivity on social media, I'm privy to the near incessant charges leveled at abusive pastors, which ARE serious, but also the minor gripes of people expecting perfection of mortal men. What amazes me about the current church climate in America are two issues: 1) that there is an absurd elevation of teachers we run to idolize and 2) that the vilification of men with minor/correctable failings is completely acceptable. Before we make another post, another comment, another blog post, another proclamation in this belabored public square called social media, let us stop and PRAY for these teachers - for real - for the one that has abused and shown himself/herself our enemy (because we are commanded to do so), for the one that blew us off and hurt our feelings inadvertently or in a moment of human weakness. I am GUILTY, especially when it is a teacher who has fallen into people-pleasing. But I'll tell you, the times where I stopped to pray and rethought a post or comment - I realized that adding to the online conversation would not do nearly so much as praying to the Lord would. I am a work in progress in this regard, but God will teach me to be quiet yet - may it be before I need to repent of something worse.
3) Women need quality theological teaching as much as men. AS MUCH AS. You may not think it's for you as a woman, but, WOMAN, it IS for you. The relational depth that we long for is only satisfied in a relationship with Christ - you will find that a good theology satisfies your longing heart that aches for MORE. While I don't talk to many women on the subject, my guess is that my own sense of longing for MORE love and deep relationship is not isolated to me. Though not married myself, I know enough to fear the expectations that my woman's heart can come up with for an imaginary man - He may love like Christ, but He isn't Christ. The sooner we see that our earthly love, while a precious gift and sanctifying mercy to us, is NOT enough and that we require more, we'll be in a place to seek what lies in the deep ocean of God's character. Good theology is not boring technicalities of God's Word - it feels like riches you have discovered; it will kindle your excitement for Whom God is, for what He has done, for what He will do, for the great hope we look forward to, I'm convinced of its curative properties - that plumbing the depths and breadths of God's Word can resolve depressions and anxieties, can replace deep grief with lasting comfort, and can enable us to BEST serve the Church and the lost. It can sustain a waning passion, and we find that it provides us the fuel for sustained joy. I cannot think how many times, in the midst of a heavy or exhausted heart that God reminds me of what I've read or studied or reminds me to rejoice in all that He had given me or done, and the more that women are in the Word of God and study it, the more frequent the rehearsal of what is good over what is fallen.
4) Submitting to God is not independent from submitting to a local church body for leadership. Submission still seems to be such a controversial subject for something to clearly laid out in Scripture. But as I see more and more women emboldened, there is this concerning, sour-tasting uncorrectable nature to this boldness. I surmise this is attributable to women constantly being told to do things that are by nature superfluous and extra-biblical, but just because we may have felt condemned does not mean we ought not be corrected. We have to sit under leadership - and for those of us where Christianity is freely proclaimed, it is possible to find excellent teachers. If you're single like myself, you have the exceptional luxury of choosing on your own. In either case, submitting to church leadership is an issue of obedience - and if you aren't in that position, you will not be nearly as effectual for Christ. God reined me in when I was drowning without a church family after college. He led me to a bible-believing church, and even just this year showed me my issues with submission to Him. That would not have happened without the near constant influence of the teaching and encouragement of my church. If you don't know what's good for you, submitting to a local body is such a joy - I feel like I have a true family alongside me. While we sometimes... oftentimes... fear that word submission, there is JOY found in the prospect and, quite paradoxically, abundant freedom.
I titled this post the way that I did because it is not about how God will elevate us, but how He magnifies and glorifies Himself through us. A worldly interpretation of that statement would say that doesn't seem like our best life. How wrong though, for it is the VERY BEST - it's what we're built and made for. The sooner we start operating in that "what we're made for" life, it will become abundantly clear what is the better life to lead. So girl, plant your face - in God's Word for wisdom and knowledge and on the floor, praying in humility and dependence.
