feMale enEmy

On the first Tuesday of the first week of school, Ben Stuart led a sermon of Breakaway focusing on finding God through our studies in school. This was the first day that God clearly spoke. (...sad it took till nearly the first Tuesday of the LAST month of school...) Nonetheless, God showed up in my most dreaded class and showed me something true, interesting, sad and once again, lit a spark reminding me of a calling toward women's ministry.

We were speaking about the feminist rhetoric of a woman named Cixous. Don't try to say it out loud, ;). While I usually paraphrase the quotations I felt the urge to write one in its entirety:


"Men have committed the greatest crime against women. Insidiously, violently, they have led them to hate women, to be their own enemies, to mobilize their immense strength against themselves, to be the executants of their virile needs."


While I don't necessarily believe this was intended in the same time frame as we would understand it today, and men aren't always the ones objectifying or humiliating women's mindsets, this is definitely still an issue. Women are self-conscious, judgmental, hypocritical, we all are because we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. We, as women, are extremely hard on ourselves and raised to be very critical of others as well, namely, other women.

"And why don't you write? Write! Writing is for you, you are for you, your body is yours, take it.
I know why you haven't written and why I didn't write before the age of twenty-seven. Because writing is at once too high, too great for you, it's reserved for the great...& it's 'silly'. Besides you've written a little in secret, and because you've punished yourself for writing, because you didn't go all the way."


If we change the context of this quote a bit, take away writing, let it apply to anything you are holding back from doing because of fear. Why are you letting fear restrain you!? Why are you letting the judgements of others upon you change your thoughts toward the things you enjoy? "In secret," meaning something that is enjoyed and pursued but avoided because of the high costs, holding back because of fear.

There is an end, there is a finisher to this story: Jesus Christ. We only have to fight the ways of the world, the lies of the flesh and the harsh warfare of Satan against us UNTIL Jesus comes back for us. There is an end to all sin but this harm toward ourselves, toward other women, the reasons we raise girls the way we do in today's society: there needs to be an end to that too, even sooner. We are drowning and we are bringing all of God's princesses down with us.

Stop. Take a breath of fresh air. Draw a circle of chalk around yourself. Start there. Be the difference. Be a visible difference for the glory of our romancers Kingdom.

Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother of sister.

Romans 14:13