Eve Unwrapped

For the past two days, I've studied more than a hundred honest statements from women about the joys and challenges of womanhood. These cards, gathered at Thrive last week, confirmed what I suspected: that in some ways, we are as confused as everyone else about what, exactly, it mean to form our identity--first in Christ, and also as uniquely feminine. See if you recognize your own voice in any of these statements:

What is most challenging about my womanhood is
...fighting the constant battle of insecurity...
...the constant balancing act....
..being able to do it all...
...being everything to everyone...
...failing my own expectations...
...competing to be the best in all my roles...
...the obsession to control...

But women also love the freedom and flexibility of their lives. Our places of influence. The permission-and mandate-to be emotional creatures. We love being nurturing and life-giving, of mothering our own children and others. We love being talkers.
And God love us, several reported that they loved their curves and hips, the chance to dress up, getting to wear makeup, and be feminine. Yea Ladies!!

We love being wives and mothers, but we also feel like failures and "less thans" as wives and mothers. We wrestle with loving and hating staying at home, raising children, working, marriage, and all the other places we are called to be relational.

In some ways, the modern woman encapsulates the promises and curses found in Eve's story in Genesis. We, like Eve, are equipped as "helpers." We are named ezers, the Hebrew word also used for God and for strong warriors. We are given a holy mandate to be influencers and empowerers.

The name we've been given carries much influence and responsibility, for our name "helper" implies relationship. When we are good, we are so good. But when we are insecure? We struggle with what to do with this relational power and influence. We turn against ourselves, against our relationships. We, like Eve, step out in independence. We decide that we should do things ourselves, but in the process, we lose the very essence of ourselves.

We look elsewhere for our identity, for our definition, and sooner or later, we end up disappointed. Disillusioned. And even in despair.

What do we do when we've lost our sense of self, that image-bearing ezer for God?

We return to the one who created us. We ask Him who He says that we are. We search his word for an understanding of our identity in relationship with His.

This morning David Dwight, the pastor at Hope Church, spoke about the Trinity. (Look for the itunes podcast link at the bottom of the Hope page to listen.)

He taught about the Hebrew mindset for understanding truth. Rather than breaking things down into pieces, the Hebrew mind examines all parts and pieces to inform the big picture. Rather than slicing things down into bits, like our Greek-influenced culture is prone to do, we will do better if we look for the big story in all the parts. As women, we must do the same. Rather than searching for instructions or rules in scripture to follow as women, we must look at all the parts of scripture together, to get the best picture of God that our finite minds can handle.

This semester at Thrive, we will join together to listen to God's stories about women from the Old Testament. We will look for that lost feminine identity along the way.

This Thursday, our focus is Sarah and Hagar. Their account is found in Genesis 12-16. Before then, consider this:
Have you ever had a season where you felt 'less than' in an area of life? What was your response to that season?

And if you missed last Thursday, and want to catch up, please listen in! You can hear a recording by clicking on the .mp3 player on the left of the blog!