Women’s Work

Hello again friends! If you didn’t catch my last post (and it’s disclaimer) you can find that here. In short, I promise this little digression will not turn my website into a Lord of the Rings fan page. This particular topic has been on my mind for a while and then I hit one of the most powerful moments in Tolkien’s Return of the King (IMO) and I just had to share the inspiration it gave me.

Again, if you’re familiar please bear with me for those who aren’t:

The kingdom of men is falling to an evil enemy and his armies full of gruesome warriors. The most valiant are not even hopeful, but preparing the bravest defeat they can manage. When all seems nearly lost, help comes from the west. The largest army that could be mustered surprises the enemy and draws them away from the city in the east. The dark armies are lead by an evil lord, draped in black and riding on a massive, hideous beast. The beast’s very cry weakens and paralyzes the hearts of men.

In the skirmish, the king and leader of the forces from the west is knocked over, his horse falling on top of him. As the evil captain and his monster come to kill and devour the king, a rider who has been ever near the king approaches. He yells at the captain to leave the king alone and boldly stands in the way. The evil captain scoffs at this soldier and tells him to move out of the way or he’ll withhold the relief the death for unimaginable torture instead:

“Come not between the Nazgûl and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.”

The brave warrior stands his ground saying he’ll do anything he can to stop him. The evil captain intends to end the argument and says,

“Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!”

But in the moments the follow, the brave rider’s helmet is thrown off revealing long, beautiful hair and she declares:

“But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.”

She confidently slays the beast with her sword and the hobbit Merry comes to her aid against the evil captain who is defeated, though it brings them both to the doorstep of death.

This is many a girl’s favorite scene in any book. ever. I have always loved it. But these days it takes on such a new meaning.

God’s design for gender was and is perfect. Men and women are equally valuable, though differently made beings for a purpose. But I believe this is another situation in which we think to “small-ly” of God. I have no argument with “Christ is the head of man and man is the head of woman” and I have no issue with the word submission. This is not about whether or not women should lead in certain areas or speak in church. This is about the battle field. Forget the semantics, politics and appearances. Those matter little when you’re in the thick of warfare.

On the ground, where light meets darkness in an unmistakable clash and lives are saved and lost,
where souls hang on, desperate that hope might not be in vain,
and where our battle is not against flesh and blood,
in those places gender roles lose their points for debate and become real.
There are some battles that God intended to be fought by women.
And in those trenches, where the stuff of the Bible and movies is real and true and right in your face, there are battles that only women can fight. Or at least that they’re meant to. Don’t stone me yet; what I’m trying to say that gender roles have purpose beyond our understanding.

When women pick up the armor God gives to every believer and own their identity as daughter and servant of the King,
darkness shakes,
beasts are slain,
and lives are saved from the enemy.
It is not by our own power or wisdom or any device of woman; it is by the strength of His might.

Every woman is different and I don’t want to make generalizations. But each woman has passion, cares, strengths and eyes that see differently than the man next to her. There are people that need our touch. There are hearts that need our eyes to see. There are voices that need our ears to hear.

There are also battles that we as women are not meant to fight. And sometimes, because of brokenness, we must thrust out our shield of faith and do our best. Sometimes this looks like prayer. Sometimes this looks like silent service. And often it looks like women standing in a gap that wasn’t made for them. All over this world and down the street, God is strengthening women to uphold his purposes in the absence of strong, godly men. And I pray for revival in the hearts of those men! But there are also beasts that need slain, hearts that have been abandoned on the field and words needing spoken that God has formed the hearts of women for.

In my passion, I’m not sure I’m coming across perfectly clear. Unfortunately, the best illustrations I can think of are either movie scenes or involve someone else’s personal story.

Here’s one I think I can be anonymous about. Some of my formative years, I went to a church that didn’t talk about the Holy Spirit working or demons or anything of the sort. I think the only time I heard them spoken of was directly in scripture, and they were left untouched besides.

By adulthood I realized that wasn't necessarily healthy but things that might be labeled as “charismatic” were still uncomfortable topics for me. A few years ago, I asked someone dear me to tell me their testimony of physical healing. The story she told involved much more than just physical healing, but spiritual as well. She recommended a book that would help me understand some of the spiritual things I was still pretty shy about. I had already started asking questions about these things because we were having some struggles in our house that had a spiritual flair to them. So I bought the book and skimmed it. It seemed real, but weird and I figured it wasn’t all that relevant to me.

Several months later Nic and I were trying to convince a friend to make better choices for his life. We had talked and weren’t getting anywhere. Nic had sat with him and given him great wisdom. I asked God, “Please help me know how to pray.” And God brought that (weird, but good weird) book to mind and impressed on my heart that I knew exactly what I needed to do.

I wasn’t really sure I wanted to obey completely, but I walked over to our friend, who was getting upset and told him I’d at least pray for him. Well folks, I set my hand on his forearm in the middle of that public place and he dropped to the floor. We (myself, Nic, the rather amazing woman with us, the man’s family member, and on and off passerby and employees at the location) prayed over him for a couple of hours, watching God do miracles. I remember praying out loud, “God I am so uncomfortable with this. You are going to have to help me.” And he did. All I had to do was let HIM DO THE WORK through me.

God had prepared me with the exact resources I needed, encouraged me, strenthened me, guided me. Why not Nic? I don't know. But I see this happen in our ministries and family still today. Nic has his battles to fight and he is valiant in them. And then I have mine. I have often looked at some of these situations and wondered why I was the person God asked to be there. But now I realize that there are battles women are particularly suited to win. In fact, I think there are some battles each one of us is uniquely made, gifted and equipped for. I think God loves to see us gird up and fight them.

If Eowyn had not had a deep love for her uncle, the king, she would not have been there to defeat his enemy. If she had been another calvary-man who was hungry for war, she would have been focused on taking down as many enemies as possible instead of interceding for the ones she loved. If she had been a practically minded warrior, she wouldn’t have had understanding for Merry; she certainly wouldn’t have shared a horse on the long journey with the hobbit who ended up saving her life and killing the captain of the dark armies.

I know that the reason this is such a big deal to me has to do with a lot of the healing God has been doing in my own heart lately. And maybe it’s not resonating with you in such a big way. But what I’m learning (and my hope for women reading this) is to see the bigness of God in gender roles, specifically in womanhood. So often theological positions and political stances, all the opinions about godly gender roles only add one thin opaque layer after another between us and clear Truth. They add weight and thoughts that God never wanted us to be distracted with. Pretty soon we’re all just doing our best to squint through the gray blur to find our way when what he wants for us is to be running together to take the battle field in His name. We’ve been waylaid. Some of our warriors have engaged the enemy but many of us are just trying to make our way toward the sound of the skirmish. But God.

God is the giver of wisdom and the straightener of paths.
He is also the giver of gifts, the source of strength and the saver of souls.
We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ask for the wisdom. Know who you are. Humbly draw your everything from God. And do the thing!