This essay is the winning entry from our ‘Who Will Be Woman?’ contest run in November of 2008. In addition to being published, Gillian will also receive the $250 in prize money.
The concept of essence evokes in me memories of the 60’s and 70’s Women’s Movement when the philosophical questions of “Who am I?’ and “Why am I here?” became vital to the discovery of my identity, this identity that had been insidiously programmed to fit into specific role playing involving only a few preset choices,. But beyond this surface identity was my unique essence, long undiscovered, buried deep in my consciousness, and I determined to dig it up. I eventually found my essence in my God. I was His woman.
I have never forgotten the poignant words of a young woman expressing her hurt. With heart-wrenching sobs, she told of her mother’s consistent rejections because she was a daughter and not the desired-for son, and as such could not fit into the plans on which her mother had set her heart. But times have changed.
Time has tempered my anger but my sadness has increased. In many societies women are denied the right of choice, their dreams faded in the light of reality, their gifts stifled, their vision imprisoned within the restrictive bonds of long-structured, social confinement. For most of these women, the prerogative of examining the concept of their “essence” is a painful and ultimately pointless privilege. Or is it? Many rebel in solitary silence crying out for a degree of fulfillment, a freedom of choice.
Rediscovering my Christian faith as a single mother, I was unprepared for the arrogance of certain conservative Christian preachers. I heard a television evangelist proclaim that men were meant for significance and women for security. Where did THAT come from? Certainly not from God’s Word. Tell that to Senator Clinton and Governor Palin, both mothers, both established in important political positions and who aspire to higher heights of power and responsibility. However, Ingrained stereotypes of women lurk just below the surface of seeming social acceptance. Of course when a woman in power becomes too forceful, this “aggression” is deemed unsuitable. When tears are shed, she is accused of exploiting her gender to arouse sympathy.
…the essence of a woman, this divinely sourced sacrificial love, can be summed up in the words “you do what you have to do,”…
From the beginning I determined that I could not allow any prejudice that hurt me to come between me and my God and consequently, he transformed my passionate rebellion into passion for His Word. I decided to seriously search the Scriptures to discover in detail the woman God determined I was and could be. This search brought me, albeit very reluctantly, to the account of Creation. For so long I had been exposed to the false assumption that God had ordained male superiority and thus female inferiority. Yet how can a perfect God create an inferior being?
Such prejudice and ignorance have too long cloaked the exquisite symmetry of God’s design. In the beginning God created Adam, a human being, complete in His own image of both male and female (Genesis 1:26). But, delightfully, God made Adam aware of his loneliness so He took the female out of Adam and created the woman. The two would come together physically in the act of love, creating the miracle of life. Both were given authority over the Garden of Eden. Sadly sin wrought its destructive work and the image was fatally compromised, the right of female authority overruled as prophesied by God (Genesis 3:16).
Yet still, undeniably, woman is formed in God’s image. I am God’s child formed in His image endowed with the privilege of living in Spirit-led simplicity, of seeking and obeying the unadorned Truth which is always geared to God’s purpose and my spiritual gain, as a partaker in the abundance of His blessings.
My essence is not a static condition but a glorious, ongoing discovery of the super-reality of my new creature in my Lord Jesus. Through faith, God has entrusted me with the Presence of His Holy Spirit, planting within me a tree of life rooted in love, blossoming in His fruit, with the aim of producing my character of righteousness. Evidence of my essence is revealed in my fruitful actions, in my pursuit of God’s unique plan and purpose for my life, established before I was born (Jeremiah 1:5). Only the details await discovery.
This essence contains my individuality corrupted by sin but now rebirthed by the grace of God. God desires to totally transform me into a reflection of my Lord Jesus. So the essence of regenerated woman, and man, is the birth within them of Jesus’ essence, His sacrificial love, a powerful foundation for every relationship. Man and woman, woman and man, partners in authority, the woman a worthy “helper” to the man, not inferior but valued in a relationship that mirrors Jesus’ relationship with His Father – an honorable role.
Practically, and in the final analysis, the essence of a woman, this divinely sourced sacrificial love, can be summed up in the words “you do what you have to do,” providing and protecting whether for a family or for a nation, revealing sensitivity tempered by a spine of steel, passionately driven to fulfill God’s plan and thus, when necessary, bravely and boldly leading the way to push open closed doors to explore new horizons. God is a creative God; God is a God of limitless vision.
Although for women society’s expectations and stereotypes attempt to continue to hinder and to wound her spirit, the Lord will lead His women into new pastures, those women who will courageously refuse to be beaten down, who refuse to let obstacles thwart their drive to overcome. Let us boldly claim God’s will for our lives – prepared to do whatever it takes. Perseverance and endurance forbid dreams to lose themselves in the shadows of discouragement, they forbid visions to fade, gifts to decay, and forbid desires to wither into discontent and silent, self-destructive rebellion.
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Miriam Shumba
February 24th, 2009
This is a great article. I agree that women’s roles are so difficult to define. Sometimes when we act “female” then it’s treated negatively or as a tool we use to gain sympathy and when too strong, we are accused of being feminists. My belief is that, men and women have different strengths but none is more superior than the other. I also think as women we have to look in our hearts and be true to who we are and not what anybody else says we should become.