God's Feminine Side

Blessed are those who find wisdom,
   those who gain understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
   and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubies;
   nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
   in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways,
   and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;
   those who hold her fast will be blessed.

By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations,
   by understanding he set the heavens in place; 

by his knowledge the watery depths were divided,
   and the clouds let drop the dew. Proverbs 3:13-20

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. – John: 1:1-4

Today’s Reading: Proverbs 3-5; 2 Corinthians 1

For a long time there was something that bothered me. Where was the femininity in God?

I was raised with the idea that there was God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; The Holy Trinity. How these three things come together can be confusing (and probably is so for most Christians… keep it real) but what I never understood was why the feminine side wasn’t represented.

Of course I too am schooled in the understanding of how male dominated societies have for years written their histories from the male perspective to the subjugation of women; but I always felt that there was a hidden truth here. I always felt that there was something tucked away in the passages that would reveal this truth.

Wisdom is God’s feminine side.

When I read the passages above from Proverbs 3 it became all the more clear. Wisdom is always referred to as “She”. She was there when heaven and earth were created. By her all that we know was created. When I think of this idea in light of the fact that every child was brought into the world by a woman… it really made perfect sense. Of course all of creation comes from God’s feminine side. How can it not? 

But then what is the role of man? Instantly I thought of the passage above from John 1. John is talking about Jesus of course but this idea of the Word being God and with God is fascinating. And then the Word manifests as a son which is male.

In the creation story it is said that God spoke the world into existence. “Let there be light” and it was. But it was through wisdom that God spoke these creative words. This marriage of masculine and feminine, Word and Wisdom is the seed of all creation. When we apply our wisdom to life and speak out into the world the things that we want to happen then we are planting our very own seeds of creation.

The important part of this is that both sides must be there. We must fully embrace the masculine and feminine within each of us. We must seek wisdom and boldly proclaim the desires of our hearts. And we must use our thoughts and actions together to fertilize and water that seed until it grows and blossoms into what we dreamed it would be.

This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. It is the fountain of God’s wisdom. We can search inside ourselves and find that little piece of God that we all share. And through this connection we can make the impossible possible.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit… the masculine and feminine all wrapped into one.

God can be father or mother because God can be anything that we need God to be. But regardless of how you see God… never forget to embrace both sides of God, and therefore both sides of you.

Find the balance that works best for you.       

Yeast

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel." - Exodus 12: 14-15

"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." – Matthew 16:6

Today’s reading from the Old Testament is the first Passover. It is the preparation for the last and final event where the first born of each house hold, human and animal, will be killed. God gives the people specific instructions so that they will be passed over, and not affected by this plague.

Coincidentally the New Testament portion of the reading has Jesus coming down hard on the Pharisees and Sadducees (the religious elite of Israel during the time of Jesus). He warns his disciples of the “yeast” of The Pharisees and Sadducees.

Huh?

Then I thought more about it and was like hmmm… ok yeast must be bad… but what is the message here.

Then after doing some digging around on the internet (and among the cobwebs of my mind) I remembered a very important thing about yeast. It changes the nature of bread when it is added. A very small amount of yeast goes a long way.

What I get from this is that it is really important that we keep good council.

Most of us are flooded with information. I for one have more information that I can handle. In November I got the fancy Droid phone and now have my facebook, twitter, email, news, text, apps all in my pocket.

The nerd in me is dancing a jig.

But I came to realize that not all of this information is good information.

The most problematic source in my pocket is Twitter. There are all kinds of people giving their two cents about life in 140 characters or less. Rick Warren, Rev Run, and Paulo Coelho are all people that I follow. They say insightful things that challenge me, make me laugh and overall stimulate my growth.

And then there are other folk on there…

There are folk who always have something negative to say, or insist on being argumentative, or just like to tear others down.

The more that I started to use twitter the more I realized I had to cut some of these folk out.

Not everyone that has something to say is saying something good.

An even smaller amount of these folk consistently say great things that will be beneficial for your life.

When we let these naysayers, discouragers, detractors, and haters into our lives they end up chipping away at our faith.

The Pharisees were trying to bait Jesus into showing “a sign from heaven” but he would not do it. Their baiting seems to say “You can’t do it; you must not be who you say you are”.

I’m sure that his disciples wanted Jesus to do it; and when he didn’t, they may have felt a twinge of doubt.

“Can He do a miracle on command? Maybe those pitchers already had wine in them?”

Doubt is like yeast to our faith. Once it takes hold it will multiply and bubble up and flourish to the point where our once strong faith has been mutated into fear.

It is important then to make sure that the people we are close to, the sources of information we most cherish, and the environments that we put ourselves in nourish the faith that we need to live our lives to the fullest.

Misery loves company. Nothing good comes of kickin’ it with that clown.

Today’s Reading: Exodus 12-13; Matthew 16

Who's the Boss?

Well according to this scripture it’s definitely not Tony Danza.

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " – Exodus 3: 13-14

How dope an introduction is that? Here’s my 2010 New International Clarence Version.

Moses: Ay what’s your name?

God: I am.

Moses: You are what?

God: I am.

Moses: Okaaaaay….

I read that and couldn’t help but laugh in admiration of God’s gangsta. But then I thought about it for a minute and was like wow, that’s profound.

When we think about the word “am”, it signifies being and existing. So the way I read it God is really saying that he is the source of being, the source of existence.

This a priori nature of God is a powerful concept for me. In a strange way it provides me with comfort. I feel like man, if the thing that created existence itself is on my team, I can’t help but win.

The only way I can lose is when I try to do things on my own.

I have started to realize that when I am in one of those down moments or down times or when everything seems to be going wrong it tends to be the case that I have also in some way walked away from God.

In a previous post I attached a link to the classic poem “Footprints”. In it the writer describes having a dream where she is walking with God on a beach and moments in her life flash in the sky. She notices that in the toughest moments there was only one set of footprints instead of two.

This upset her and she asked God why… and God said that it was at these moments that He carried her...

I've been there.

Sometimes I struggle with this idea of God being this all powerful, all knowing, all being entity; especially when things happen that I perceive as bad or hurtful to myself and others.

But when I remember God’s position, “I am”, in relation to my position, an itty bitty speck of existence in the history of the universe, it becomes easier to stay in my lane, and focus on my purpose.

As I keep on saying… we just gotta do the best that we can with what we have been given. Let God handle the rest.

The other stuff is above my pay grade.

Today's Reading: Exodus 1-3; Matthew 14: 1-21