“Our strengths and gifts are not worth much if we allow them to lie dormant.”
-Carolyn Custis James (Half the Church)
I preached this morning at my church here in Mexico, truths God has been teaching me, words God has been stirring up in me. The fact that this is something I do sometimes is amusing to me because I would so rather not be the one holding the microphone. Even in the past, working as a waitress, at times I would be speaking with my tables when I would suddenly realize all the attention was on me and I would have an inner panic attack: “OH NO, OHHHHH NO. THEY ARE ALL LOOKING AT ME, PLEASE GOD MAKE IT STOP.” In churches my favorite spot is tucked in the back where I can sing and dance and whisper “Amen.” without anyone even noticing me. Yet here I am, plucked from my cozy back-row chair to lead worship on stage and some days, like today, preach.
I do this because I love God so deeply & desperately that I will do anything He asks.
Even the uncomfortable things.
There is, though, an aspect of this situation which absolutely delights me and that is this: my daughters are watching me.
My daughters are watching while a woman stands up to proclaim the word of the LORD and there is nothing novel about this for them.
In their lives, in their church, women preach. In their lives, in their church, not only are women gifted and called by God, but their gifts & callings are affirmed & welcomed.
I didn’t see a woman in the pulpit until I was seventeen years old, and it seemed weird to me. I didn’t know women could stand in front of a congregation and share words straight from the heart of God because I’d never seen it.
Praise be to God, my daughters won’t ever be able to say the same. ♡
so this is Love... 