Hellooo!
I have to yell because I live in Wellington. I’m the ‘blogger emeritus’ of the three. Technically I make our blog international.
A bit about me: I
was a ‘Christian’ before I was a Christian. I have the surprisingly
non-unique experience of realising who Jesus was half-way through Bible
College. I was born into a faithful home and when I was three, my
parents shipped us off to Ethiopia with the view of being missionary
lifers. It didn’t quite work out that way. Three years and two bouts of
malaria later, we came home skinnier, disappointed, and amazed that
clean water came out of taps.
Growing
up I assumed I was a Christian. Why wouldn’t I be? I believed in God
right? And that Jesus guy. I didn’t get what he did but I was pretty
sure he was real.
After high school I had a terrible idea. Why not join the army? I’ll travel,
get super toned and sexy, shoot guns out of helicopters. That didn’t
happen. Instead I shaved my head, ate my ever increasing weight in
potatoes - not conducive to toned sexiness, and there were no
helicopters in sight. At least none with me in them. Instead I got
caught up in the drinking culture that is so prevalent in the army, and
enjoyed being the only girl for every twenty guys.
After
a series of fortunate events God led me to Moore College - a Bible
College in Sydney. I needed a diploma to get into Uni, and this seemed
like the most practical way. It was something of a shock to the system.
The first thing I noticed was how well people loved each other. I wanted
their peace and contentment. I didn’t understand why I didn’t have it. I
was a Christian too, right? All the while I was wondering why everyone
talked about Jesus so much. Wasn’t being a Christian just believing in
God?
I
was sitting in a lecture when the penny dropped. Out of the blue I
understood that Jesus’ death on the cross wasn’t something that happened
on the sidelines of history. His death paid the price for our sins.
That’s how I am able to be in a relationship with God, because his death
tore the veil between us and him. There was a lot of face palming over
how I had missed that detail all these years.
Becoming
a Christian didn’t instantly make my life easy. There was a long
process of casting off guilt and unforgiveness, but I have the knowledge
that shame has no place in my life now and it is mind blowing how much peace
that brings.
As
I matured as a Christian, God gave me an anguish for certain things,
and these anguishes formed my passions. First was slavery. It kills me
that 30 million people are in slavery, and I am praying for the day we
see the captives go free. The second is women’s rights. I have problems
with the word ‘feminist’ (although I use it for linguistic purposes) as
it immediately aligns me with views I do not, would not ever hold. But
break feminism down into isolated problems and I’m there with my sign
post. I get all ragey when I talk about the slut shaming, victim
blaming, porn culture, rape culture and institutionalised discrimination of women.
Anyway, deep breaths.
In
the beginning, I struggled to find God in feminism and it took a while
to see that he’s right there, marching beside us, with a sign post of
his own.
Part
of becoming a Christian was learning to use my ‘Jesus Filter’. This is
so much more complicated than the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ process. Am I
allowed to drink? (a little) Can I read Harry Potter? (as if you
wouldn’t) Can I watch Game of Thrones? (ummm). Is God a feminist? (hells
yeah). That’s what I’m going to write about on this blog. I don’t know
all the answers, but God puts treasure in jars of clay. He loves women
and their rights, and I want to figure out how he has something to do
with everything.
Peace
