Occasionally(Always) Christians need Feminism

I was inspired by a discussion today about what it means to belong.

We all desire to belong.

Some of us(me) spend our whole lives searching for where we belong.

Some of us(not me) just are naturally good at knowing where they belong.

I used the example of a puzzle piece, simply put, we were built to connect to another piece.

Rob Bell has these videos called Nooma, and in one of his videos he talks about the significance of breath.

He talks about how the word used in Genesis to say that God "breathed life into mankind" is the same word in the hebrew language used for the Holy Spirit.

Meaning. God put the Holy Spirit in each of us and saw that it was VERY good.

That's ridiculously cool to me...for a bunch of reasons.

First off....this, in my opinion, proves that we as christians NEED to be apart of social justice.

If the same divine spirit that lives in me lives in you, how can we be anything but equals??

If the same spirit that takes of residence inside me AND you, how can any gender, race, sexual orientation, social standing, economic standing, sin or good deed, be anything but equal?

We exist in a world were we all neatly and not so neatly, belong.

We were created with a purpose.

We were created to value and care for the people around us.

We were created to bring unique and valuable perspectives to our communities.

We were created to be holy and without fault.

But we are also human and make a lot of mistakes.

We(me) are selfish.

We(me) want to belong so we find any way to belong, even if it's not the right place.

We(me) get caught up in deciding who is deserving of goodness and mercy and when they deserve it.

Instead of looking at people the way Jesus see us, we(me) look at them through our own bias and prejudice and make assumptions about people and who they are.

We(me) seek to be understood but not to understand.

We(me) let fear and the unknown decide who people are, instead of honoring the divine in who they are.

Peace is possible. You are being lied to if you believe peace is unattainable.

When we honor the existence of the Holy Spirit in others we can be at peace with ourselves, the differences in opinions, and the unknown parts of who people are.

The cool thing about Jesus' life here on earth was not him going around telling everyone, "okay, you have to give up all your sin, and you have to change you life around completely, and you have to do x, y, and z...and then I will let you into the kingdom of heaven."

He said the kingdom of heaven is now.

If Hell is the absence of God then heaven is the presence. And he lives inside of us. So we can experience heaven RIGHT NOW.

His life here on earth looked like him going up to prostitutes and saying leave your past behind you and walk knowing you belong to the freedom I stand for.

He brought value and wholeness to those who felt they had none.

Not after he convinced them to change their ways.

But just as they were.

He saw their value before they saw their own.

There's a reason Jesus didn't hang out with the Pharisees, they didn't see the value in his creation.

They only saw the brokenness.

This is why we need feminism.

This is why we need black lives matter.

This is why we need to help refugees.

This is why the gay community belongs in the church.

So they can remind us of our value and wholeness in Christ and we can in turn remind them of theirs.

Namaste. The divine in me honors the divine in you.

Shalom. May you feel the wholeness of who you are through Jesus and all he has created you to be.

Peace. May you experience the restfulness that comes with belonging where God has put you.