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...

“But [Jesus] turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” -           Matthew 16:23, KJV Imagine the look of hurt in Peter’s eyes, the one who has been affectionately called “The Rock” by His Master for nearly three years now, the look of confusion and frustration and pain as the man he considered one of his best friends, His Lord and Savior, called him “Satan.”   Peter had been zealous for the cause, excitedly following Christ where no others dared to tread – and now, just a short time before he would “lose” Him to death, Jesus calls him a devil?   Rebukes him harshly in front of the other disciples?   What was going on here?   Perhaps the meaning is more clear when we read the verses before it.   Jesus, in verse 21, tells the disciples that He will go to Jerusalem, suffer cruel injustices, be bru...