On Women

This week, at their national convention, the Southern Baptists voted to ban women from the pulpit. This is not really surprising, as it has long been their stance, but they've made it official. 

Because if you codify sin, perhaps you can perform some kind of mental gymnastics that lets you feel less of a burden from it. 

Here's the thing: in the beginning, God created a man - Adam. God bent down into the dust, formed the dirt into clay, formed the clay into a human, and breathed the very spirit of God into him to make him live. He named him "Adam" - from the Hebrew word for "dirt" - and set him in the garden with all of the other amazing creatures He had made. 

Then, God looked around the creation and for the very first time, saw something that wasn't "good" - the man was alone. 

So God put Adam - dirt - into a deep sleep, took one of his ribs, and fashioned for him a helpmeet in his form, the form of God (because God had given Adam His form, in His image, and so the woman, created in the image of the image would also bear the image). And Adam named her "Eve" - from the Hebrew word for "life." 

And then God said, "It is very good." 

So when there was dirt and dirt was alone, it was not very good; something was missing. Something vital. Something that would be come to known, by the dirt itself, as life, and that life would prompt God to finally conclude that His creation was not only complete, but "very good." 

And now, here we are, thousands of years later, and a bunch of dirt got together in a room and affirmed for themselves, claiming to be in the name of God, that they don't need life. 

And I'm telling you...that's sin. 

That's a rejection of God's plan. That's a rejection of God's design. That's a direct rejection of God's Word, where God Himself told the dirt that it wasn't good for him to be alone and that he needed a helpmeet. 

And if you think Eve's job as a helpmeet was to sweep the dirt in the Garden and water the plants and wash the fig leaves, you are sadly mistaken. 

Eve's job in the Garden was to bring life...and not just from her uterus. Remember, Adam named her "life" before they'd ever even figured out procreation. He took one look at her and called her "life." 

Here's what I think happened: 

I think that when Adam sensed the spirit of God in Eve, something inside him leapt with joy the way that John leapt with joy in Elizabeth's womb when Mary walked into the room. There's something about the Spirt that recognizes life in the other when God is present, and it can't help but rejoice - physically rejoice. And I think that's what Adam felt in the depth of his being when God gave him Eve. That's why he named her "life." 

Thousands of years later, men still need that. They still need that connection. They need that reflection. They need that resonation. They need that thing inside them to be stirred with the spirit and presence of God. It's what makes things "very good." 

Thousands of years later, dirt still needs life. 

Without it, your name might as well be mud.