He Leads Me

(Disclaimer: This post is what I call a get-it-out-of-your-system post. Hence, it's bound to be quite rambled and has the potential of not making any sense. Just bear with me.)

Being a high-school senior, I have inevitably fallen into what I believe is perhaps the most pressure-filled, questions-asked, self-security smooshed, at times barely-breathing stage of life. Whoever said being a senior was the best year of your school-age experience probably didn't have a life.

The confusion has beaten me down to absolutely nothing. And it's exactly what I need.

I love organization. I love schedules. I love knowing what I'm doing next. When I was younger (by "younger" I mean only seven months ago . . . what a joke) I had my life organized in two-five year increments. I was going to graduate, work for a year to gain finances for college, and finish my degree within two years. Oh, and Mr. Perfect was more than welcome to walk into the picture whenever he wanted to.

Now my life has turned into something which, seven months ago, I would have called a "nightmare." The Lord has used the pressure and confusion to show me that He is my Source, not myself. Yes, it's great to be organized and have some idea of what you're doing. But through all my organization and "life planning" I came to realize that it was a form of self-security for me. I knew what I was doing. I knew what was going to happen within the next six months. I knew what job I would pursure. It was all about I, me, my, and myself.

Now I'm in a learning process. I'm learning how to depend on Christ for my every-day sustinence. He will lead me in the path I should take. It will happen in His timing. The carpet has been yanked out from underneath me; I have absolutely no idea what I'll end up doing or where I'm going, but He does. And I'm okay with that.

Why Feminism Makes Us Unhappy

Our generation tried. We really did. We embraced education, careers, prominence. We despised all relationships and responsibilities that would hold us back. We moved marriage, mothering and homemaking from the top of our lists to the bottom - or crossed them off all together. After all, we were so much more enlightened than our fore-sisters were. The world had revolved around men, but it was our turn now. We would make it bow to our demands.

We bought into the feminist promise that woman would find happiness and fulfillment when she defined her own identity and decided for herself what life as a woman was all about. How very wrong we were. For ultimately, our identity is a matter decided not by us, but by the One who in the beginning created us male and female.

It’s obvious that the “Leave it to Beaver” model of womanhood—having a husband, a station-wagon full of kids, a house in the ‘burbs, and every possible modern appliance—didn’t bring woman the happiness she desired. As an old, archived 1972 Time magazine article lamented:

"By all rights, the American woman today should be the happiest in history. She is healthier than U.S. women have ever been, better educated, more affluent, better dressed, more comfortable, wooed by advertisers, pampered by gadgets. But there is a worm in the apple. She is restless in her familiar familial role, no longer quite content with the homemaker-wife-mother part in which her society has cast her."

Two years ago, Time magazine devoted an entire issue to “The State of the American Woman.” Writers were confounded by the evidence, tracked by numerous surveys, that as women have gained more education, more economic independence, more power, and more freedom, they have become less and less happy. Ironically, they are unhappier now than when the Feminist movement set about to solve the problem of woman’s unhappiness. The modern ideal for womanhood is even less fulfilling than the one it replaced.

So, should we try to rewind the tape and try to squeeze every woman back into the “Leave it to Beaver” mold? No. We can’t hope to get womanhood right until we understand the ultimate object to which it points. When God created male and female, He provided an object lesson - a parable, as it were - of His entire redemptive plan. Men are to reflect the strength, love and self-sacrifice of Christ. Women are to reflect the character, grace and beauty of the Bride He redeemed. Ultimately, womanhood exists to help display the masterpiece of God.

The implications are staggering. This places womanhood at the center of God’s ultimate purpose. It endows it with supernatural significance and meaning. It provides woman with a framework to understand what her life is all about, what she should value, and how to make choices that align. Time, culture, and circumstances change, but the Bible provides an enduring model for womanhood that goes far beyond a stereotyped, cookie-cutter list of behaviors.

History proves that woman’s happiness is not found in pursuing the current cultural ideal. But that doesn’t mean it’s an elusive goal. My “woman’s history” - and the history of a multitude of sisters who have loved Christ - testifies to the fact that happiness (of the deep, lasting kind) can be found in pursuing the One to whom true womanhood points.