Justice is Not Enough

Hi Friends,

There's been a lot of talk lately about justice, especially with regard to racial discrimination. When I was writing Women on the Bible Speak Out, I was thinking more about gender discrimination than racial, but still the same principal applies: Justice is not enough. It may help, but it's not enough to heal.

For those of you who are pray, I hope you'll consider praying for more than justice, but for healing, wholeness, and holiness.

When asked about this idea that justice is not enough in a recent interview, I said this:

Q: You say that justice is not enough. What do you mean by that? 

A: I feel that in our approach to the gender-based discrimination, hardships, abuse, and pain that women have endured we, as a body of Christ, and as a nation, have focused exclusively on justice, on bringing the sins of the abusers to the light. And while I’m glad the truth is finally being exposed (it’s about time!), it is not enough. Justice is not enough.

            It’s not enough for me. And it’s not enough for the women who have suffered, who are suffering now.

I want more than justice; I want healing.

I want more than healing; I want wholeness.

I want more than wholeness; I want holiness.

I want God to redeem every bit of my #MeToo experiences, and yours. I want him to transform them all.

There’s no use being swept up in anger, bitterness, resentment and so be victimized all over again. Anger doesn't bring about healing. Bitterness only poisons the bearer. And wholeness can never be found in the arms of resentment and accusation. Healing, wholeness, and holiness can only be found in a God who sees, loves, and redeems.

Justice? Good, we need justice. But what I really want, what I really long for is the wonder of God in the darkest places of life. I want to look and see, in the places I least expect it, the glory of God.

            

Hagar: A Black Slave Woman Speaks Out

Hi Friends,

In light of the focus on race and racism in America right now, I wanted to share a short excerpt from the chapter on Hagar from Women of the Bible Speak Out. I hope you'll pick up a copy of the book and read the whole chapter. Here are a couple links for online purchase:

Directly from the Publisher
Amazon Link
Barnes & Noble



Hagar was Egyptian, meaning she was black. She was also a slave, given to Sarai, Abraham's wife, as a personal maid. When Sarai became frustrated that she wasn't having a child, she gave Hagar to her husband Abraham to use sexually so that Hagar might get pregnant and Sarai might claim the child for her own. Her story is found in Genesis 16 and 21.

Here's a bit from Women of the Bible Speak Out, chapter 3. I hope it encourages you today:

So often we ignore Hagar’s story, as if she were just a footnote in the story of Abraham and Sarah. As if she didn’t matter much at all. Nobody cared about Hagar. Not Pharaoh. Not Abraham. Not Sarah. And sometimes not even today’s theologians. 

At every turn, Hagar was used and treated as a consumable, a commodity to be used up for the purposes and gain of others, and then to be thrown away. She was used not only by Sarai and Abram in the attempt to secure God’s promise of a child on their own terms, but she was also used by Pharaoh, who most likely gave Hagar to Sarai after the disastrous “she’s my sister” incident in Genesis 12. Her life was defined by a series of events in which her needs, her wants, her desires were not considered at all. She was given away to a foreigner by Pharaoh; she was given to a man sexually so she could bear a son that would not be her own; she was abused by her mistress; and then she was cast aside once that mistress had a son of her own. Foreigner. Sexual slave. Property to be used, abused, and thrown away.

She mattered to no one.

Except God.

God spoke to her personally, rescued her, redeemed her abuse. He treated this Egyptian slave woman with respect, love, and care. With value. And he made her line into a great nation, just as he promised. He did it not because Hagar was humble or faithful or somehow deserving. He did it because he saw her suffering and offered his grace to a woman everyone else had used and thrown out. They left her homeless, husbandless, and helpless, but God lifted her up and transformed not only her desperate circumstances, but also her mistakes when he led her into a future that was more than she could ever have imagined for herself. 

God can do that for you, too. He can take the worst of what you’ve suffered—your most painful humiliations and even life-long dehumanizing moments—and, despite your own bitterness, pride, anger, and resentment, redeem them, and you. That’s what God does. 

When others use us and leave us without a place of safety, without a home, God is with us. When the love and security of family is taken from us—which, in Hagar’s time, was what it was to be husbandless—God sees and intervenes. When we feel helpless to provide for our own needs or the needs of others, God will not leave us bereft. 

New Book - WOMEN OF THE BIBLE SPEAK OUT

Hey Friends,

My newest book is now available - yay! I'm praying it will help many women to find the wonder and love of God despite hurts in their past. I hope you'll pick up a copy, read, and discover the amazing love of God for YOU.

Here's a short Q&A that I hope will encourage you . . .

1) What compelled you to write about women who were abused or treated badly in the Bible?

A: When my publisher asked me to consider writing a book about women in the Bible who experienced abuse, oppression, gender-based bias and discrimination, and more, I didn’t know what I would find in the stories of these women and how they would intersect with my story and the experiences of women today. But as I began to look deeper and to pray, what became clear was that these stories reveal more than abuse and oppression; they reveal the wonder of God in the face of even horrific acts. I thought I would find only horror in these stories, but beyond the horror I found a surprising hope; I found a God who is always, always, seeking to redeem, to heal, and to make right where mankind has broken and betrayed. And I knew I had to write Women of the Bible Speak Out to give the women of the Bible a voice in our lives so that they could show us the God that they encountered, the God who loved them and loves us. In their voices, I think we’ll find our own voice, and God’s.

2) What surprised you most in writing Women of the Bible Speak Out?

A: You know, I’ve heard people say that the Bible shows a God who turns a blind eye to oppression and subjugation, or even that he condones it. But after digging deeply into the stories in Women of the Bible Speak Out, I saw that nothing is further from the truth! Instead of winking at the repression of women, the Bible exposes it and reveals a God who not only shares in but seeks to redeem our suffering. 

That surprised me. I thought I’d find depressing and oppressing stories. Instead, I found a God who loves fiercely, who defends the weak, who is passionate about true justice, and who never white-washes the sin committed against those he loves. Against us. Against the women he created, and sent his Son to die for. 

I am still amazed, changed, by seeing in these stories, God’s fierce love for women. His love for or me. For the women listening … it’s breathtaking. He doesn’t turn his back; he doesn’t shrug his shoulder and say “oh well” – not then, not now. Instead, in God we find a fierce advocate and a gentle healer. We find the lover of our souls.

3)  The #MeToo movement has become controversial. What’s your take on it?

A: To be honest, I wish there was no need for #MeToo. I want #NobodyAtAll. But that’s not the world we live in. This world is far too full of sin, abuse, violence, marginalization, derision, pain, and shame. I wish it weren’t. But the poor treatment of women because they’re women has been going on for millennia, since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and were kicked out of the garden. We can’t ignore it. Whether we use a hashtag or whether we simply answer God’s call to love others, we must pursue hope and healing in the face of this particular kind of widespread sin against half the world’s population.

So, as the recent #MeToo movement has given voice to millions of women struggling through experiences of gender-based harassment and/or physical violence, Women of the Bible Speak Out is meant to give voice to women of the Bible. Looking at #MeToo, I had to ask:

            What if the women of Scripture could speak out in a #MeToo movement of their own?  

            What would they reveal about God, and faith, and life? 

What can women today learn from the lives they led?

I truly believe this book is crucial in making the #MeToo movement more than just a cry for justice, but rather a means to hope and healing … through the word of God. 

Buy directly from the publisher
Amazon link