Daring to be Restless

The temptation, on some days, to think that I am somehow a disappointment, that I am not as I should be, that I am somehow too much and too little all at the same time … is overwhelming to say the least, as I’m sure many women know.   And yet, this week, as I was listening to a sermon by Lisa Bevere about Isaiah 52:1-2, God began showing me something powerful about who I am called to be as a woman, and who you (if you are also a woman) are to be.   Isaiah 52:1-2 in the Knox translation says: “Up, up, array thyself , Sion, in all thy strength; clothe thyself as befits thy new glory , Jerusalem, city of the Holy One!   The uncircumcised, the unclean shall enter thee no more.   Shake the dust from thee, Jerusalem, rise up and take thy throne ; rid thy neck of the chains that bound it, Sion, once captive queen! ” Once captive queen … that phrase captures my imagination, calls to the deep, long forsaken places of my heart and beckons me to awake.   Even readi...

            “A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds … She’s like a trading ship that sails away to faraway places and brings back exotic surprises.” [1]   That’s right; a good woman is, in a manner of speaking, rather like a pirate, and thus I have always felt.   With a longing for the sea that transcends logic and a rough tomboyish quality to all I do, I seem destined for such a role in history.   Even the innate beauty I do possess appears in weathered hues and the salty sting of the wind off the sea … and yet, in such an environment, I am comfortable, at home, and pleased to survey my domain.               Standing on the bow of the unknown, clinging to the lines of determination and hope, my beauty hidden, as gems in a leather pouch near my heart, I am a formidable warrior in my own right.   As all pirates must, I am wary i...