I’ve been issued a challenge

August 3, 2006

That Elisabeth Elliot. She can be feisty you know. Yesterday she told me to shut up.

Yep. Elisabeth Elliot. She told me to shut up. And it wasn’t just a polite, “Oh, please do shut up.” What she said was, and I quote, “Simply shut up for a change.”

I didn’t really have a box to put that in. I’m not sure why. But I’m cool with it. And then, randomly, I began to wonder what the worst thing Mother Theresa ever said was. I’d be interested to know. I’m not sure why.

Anyway, back to my point.

I get Elisabeth Elliot’s daily devotional delivered to my inbox every day and more often than not, I’m left with an excellent little morsel to chew on. (Shutting up was yesterday’s morsel.)

For the last several days she’s been talking a lot about holding your tongue, being quiet and things of that nature…basically, stuff I’m not very good at. In today’s devotional she talked about how we’re often faced with tough decisions, but we allow ourselves to get so busy that we’re distracted and consequently, don’t devote ample time to listening to the Spirit and seeking God’s direction.

Frankly, I don’t know what she’s talking about. This never happens to me.

OK. Whatever.

Anyway, she offered a very practical tip to combat the problem. I’m all about practical so I thought I’d pass it on to you in case you are too.

When it is impossible to break away physically to a place of solitude for a day or so in order to think and pray over a hard decision, there is one thing which I think helps—do not speak about the decision to anyone but God for forty-eight hours at least. Just hold it before Him alone. Keep your mouth shut for two days. Pray. Listen. Seek his counsel.

48 hours. Sounds easy, but the more I got to thinking about it, the more I wasn’t sure. 48 hours is a long time in my world…especially to keep my mouth shut about something.

But this would be good for me so I’ve decided to give it a whirl.

OK.

I’ll shut up now.

Category: Deep Thoughts, Life

Comments

9 Responses to “I’ve been issued a challenge”

  1. Leah, The Mom
    August 4th, 2006 @ 7:03 am

    That is good advice for all of us, especially my family as we struggle with a decision about my son’s treatment for tongue cancer. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Alida
    August 4th, 2006 @ 12:39 pm

    That is such a good piece of advice. My husband says they often tell newcomers to AA to “sit down, shut up and listen!”

    Some people are better at being quiet than others. I am still learning!

  3. Kathryn
    August 4th, 2006 @ 4:37 pm

    It is good to hear complementarian women teach other women to listen to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, for that has not traditionally been the case. I come from a complementarian background and as a rule, complementarian women have been told to follow the “leadership” of their husbands. Seeking guidance of the Holy Spirit is not encouraged, for it compromised the “headship” of the husband (when did “head” become “leader”? It doesn’t mean that in the Bible!); however, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit, not a husband or any other man, would guide us into all truth. Moreover, the Scriptural Greek word used for “head” means “source” or “origin”. It is refreshing to see comp. women beginning to embrace this truth about Holy Spirit leadership today. Maybe our future pastors and evangelists will be women who came from a comp. background, but learned to listen to the voice of the Spirit! Come to think of it, that is already happening today.

  4. Amy
    August 4th, 2006 @ 7:50 pm

    Leah, I’m so sorry about your son…I pray God makes the right course of action abundantly clear.

    Alida, that makes two of us!

    Kathryn, it seems you’re making an unsubstantiated, blanket statement about the complementarian position and what women have been taught with regards to the Holy Spirit. In addition, leadership of the Holy Spirit and leadership of the husband are not mutually exclusive as it seems you are suggesting. And regarding the word “head,” I assume you’re referring to its use in either Ephesians 5:23 and/or I Corinthians 11:3 (Greek, kephale). As Wayne Grudem writes,

    A word’s meaning is found by examining its use in various contexts. Kephale is found in over fifty contexts where it refers to people who have authority over others of whom they are the “head.” But it never once takes a meaning “source without authority”…To my knowledge, no one has yet produced one text in ancient Greek literature where a person is called the kephale of another person or group and that person is not the one in authority over that other person or group. (Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth by Wayne Grudem, p. 202)

  5. Kathryn
    August 5th, 2006 @ 2:11 am

    I come from a very comp. background, and just to give an illustration of what I’m talking about, I looked up The Council On Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and found the following sermon topic: What to do when the wife won’t follow. What a terrible, demeaning attitude toward women, especially wives. They teach male leadership, and wives had better “know their place”. I didn’t read that phrase there; it is just the attitude they have. This was typical when I grew up 47 years ago. I have been Southern Baptist all my life. Women were told they were “inferior” by pastors and other leaders, and “here are the Scriptures to prove it!”. No wonder the family got into such trouble. I see complementarian women today going down the same tragic road of male domination and female submission that earlier generations traveled and lived to regret it. You have obviously not yet experienced the harshness of complementarianism. I have. It may start out nice, but it gets worse. Putting one sex in authority over the other only creates injustice and heartache in the end. Men get the best of it in the short run, but eventually both lose out. I pray you will learn from previous generations. They had a women’s movement in the ’60s to try to correct the situation. Read Genesis 1:26 & 27. God did not give the husband authority over the wife. They were co-equal in authority. That Scripture says so! “Kephale” did not mean “authority” simply because a complementarian such as Wayne Grudem says it does. Male authority over the female is the result of sin and the curse (Genesis 3:16). God’s plan is never sin and the curse! It is always blessing and redemption from the curse. The hierarchical structures of sinful humanity are the chief cause of domestic violence against women, which is an international scandal. Please ladies and gentlemen, don’t live under the curse. God wants you to live under blessing. Your husband is not your leader, the Holy Spirit is. No husband, however godly, can take the place of the Holy Spirit in a wife’s life. That is idolatry. Remember “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; ye are all one in Christ Jesus.(Galatians 3:28)”.I highly recommend two excellent books, both by the same author: Heirs Together, and Woman Be Free by Patricia Gundry. You can find them at Christians For Biblical Equality at cbeinternational.org. Leah, I too am praying for your son.

  6. Kathryn
    August 5th, 2006 @ 2:19 am

    One more thing: the heartache mentioned above can only be prevented by one thing: mutual submission of both sexes to one another, as taught in Scripture (Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 5:21, Galatians 3:28, 1 Peter 5:5, etc). For a healthy, happy marriage, try egalitarianism.

  7. Tess
    August 7th, 2006 @ 11:40 am

    Ummm, not to start a comment war or anything, but Kathryn, everywhere that the Bible talks about the man being the head of the woman, it says “as Christ is the head of the church.”

    Do you believe that this means the church and Christ are on equal footing? I do not believe that. Ephesians also states that the man love his wife as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it. I have no problem submitting myself to my husband because I know he is submitting himself to God, and that my husband is loving me and would give himself for me as Christ gave himself for the church.

    Just a thought.

  8. CC
    August 11th, 2006 @ 10:24 am

    I found your websites last night and love them! I can relate on so many levels, my husband is a youth director and starting seminary in the fall and I work full-time outside the home so I am also definitely not the typically pastor’s wife:) AND, I love your get out of debt plan, I am on that as well. We have 3 children, all adopted internationally (hence the debt:) and life is crazy, but good!

    CC

  9. PS
    August 14th, 2006 @ 10:57 am

    As usual, when someone in “authority” wants to put something over on those “beneath” him in a diplomatic way, words are used to fool people. I believe that is the case with the word “complementarian.” That is the word used these days for those people who believe that the man should dominate or be in authority ove the woman in a marriage or in the church. In actuality, when something is “complementary”, it means mutually filling out what is not present in the other. Complementary angles. Complementary colors. One doesn’t dominate the other. A true complementary relationship in marriage would be two people being true helpmates, not one being in charge of decisions and the other just giving in, sweetly.

    Remember, Jesus always changed the predicted way of doing things, changed the rules. That is why he gave women such a prominent place in his circle of friends and in his kingdom.

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