Confessions of a "Home Depot Dropout" - Part 5 of 5

Posted on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 10:38

You see, beloved, Eve wasn’t and isn’t an option.  She’s not an accessory or a sidekick.  She isn’t Tonto to the Lone Ranger, Robin to Batman or Bullwinkle to Rocky.  Eve is essential, just as God is.  He is irreplaceable.  So is Eve.  So are you.  No one else can offer the world what you have to give, what God created you to uniquely, tenderly, powerfully and femininely offer—as a woman.  As a life saver, life giver, and life sustainer. 

You and I are not alive merely to complete a man—as noble, vital and praiseworthy as that is.  (Uh—if that’s the sole purpose of woman, BTW, where does that leave single women, divorcés and widows?  Where does that leave teenage girls?  They’re just treading water, holding their breath until they meet a man and THEN they can have a purpose and real meaning in life?  Excuse me?) 

This brings me back to the beginning.  Are women set on this earth for the sole purpose of being busy, busy, busy?  Doing, dong, doing?  What’s all this “doing-ness” accomplishing, by the way?  Some of it is and should be a nautral outflow of who we are in Christ, but the rest of it?  What are we trying to prove?  To whom?  Susie’s “more spiritual” than Betsy because she has a more hectic calendar, a busier month, a fuller schedule, a mile-long list of “ministry” involvements?  Apparently, the busier you are, the more tired you are, the more “ministry” you do makes you … more of a spiritual woman? 

Excuse me again?

Sadly, it seems that many “women’s ministries” set quite a store with being as plastic, shallow, and as ingrown as possible… “Don’t color outside the lines!  Don’t ask any hard questions!  And whatever you do, don’t try to crash our clique!  We don’t want anyone rocking the boat” — even when the boat needs rocking.  Desperately.  (But that’s a story for some other time.)

So, whatever else it means to be feminine, it includes a softness, a vulnerability and openness, a tenderness and toughness, a mysterious complexity and a beautiful, soulful intricacy that are as deep and profound and ancient as time itself.  Yes.  There is something uniquely magnificent and powerful about a woman.  And the main reason I’m a recovering “Home Depot Dropout” is simple.  Far too often the average “women’s ministry” starts and stops at “Home Depot” with “role, function, position, duties, and responsibility,” and a massive, excruciatingly tedious walk down the “How-To aisle.”  They miss what matters more than anything else in all creation: They miss my Heart. 

Thank God He doesn’t. 

There’s a powerful and poignant line from James Fenimore Cooper’s epic romance, The Last of the Mohicans.  The hero, Nathaniel, says to his lover, Cora: “I will find you.  No matter how long it takes, no matter how far—I will find you.”

And that is what the Great Lover is all about.  He can and does come for me.  Over and over and over.  For my Heart and yours.  Without fail.  Again and again and again.  In fact, learning to smell and savor His mighty, gracious, eternal and loving pursuit of every Heart is the essence and urging of HEvencense.