Monthly Archive for May, 2007

A Message to Martha ("Martha, Martha, Martha…")

Happy Wednesday! I’m so distracted today! I just can’t seem to focus. And it’s not even my normal “AAADBD” disorder (angie’s adult attention deficit blonde disorder) - which, by the way, is such a long title, I forget what I’m saying half-way through!

It’s more: I’m still thinking about women and their influence. (I discussed this recently in “The Biggest Loser”). This matters a lot to me lately because there are a bunch of new believers in my world now, and I’m so distracted by my sense of protection for them. I don’t want them to be tainted by the religious, and their view of how godly women should function - which so often, because I was brought-up in the very culture I’m talking about, unfortunately includes me. How will they learn how to be “Mary” when the church is so full of “Martha“s.

I’ve heard countless Bible studies about Mary-Vs.-Martha. It’s even a fad among church-women now to say something like, “Well, I’m a Martha, but I’m TRYING to be a Mary” - maybe the problem is the TRYING - we’re still having to be in control! And, in my humble opinion, IT’S NOT WORKING!!!!!!! It’s cool to say “I wanna be like Mary - just sitting at Jesus’ feet!”, but the reality is we want to remind everyone how we are the exception because we’re so perfectly suited for all the “churchy” tasks that “sitting” anywhere is a real loss to the community around us - After all, “What will all the common people do if I don’t bake my award-winning casserole for the Covered-Dish, while giving my advice to everyone about how the pastor could really improve his sermons, and strategically giving disapproving looks at that teenager who is NOT dressed like she’s going to church… praise the Lord!”

We all want to SAY we admire Mary, but only want to “sit” if we get credit - like sitting down to our Tuesday Bible study, not to be confused with our Thursday prayer group, or our Monday night evangelism class. But how much of it is leading us to be more like Jesus - to be about the things HE cares about? If the attitude of most church-women that I’ve met is any indicator… - Well, I think I’ll go find that inappropriately-dressed teenager and talk with her a while, and let her know that God loves her and get a reality check about where Jesus spent his time.

Maybe I just need to be reminded of what truly set Mary and Martha a part: What they did with their love for Jesus. While Martha did lots of “stuff”, and couldn’t let go of her incessant need for approval (sound familiar?), Mary just wanted to find out what Jesus really cared about - not to be lazy, but to absorb the mission - time was short, and instead of asking others what “jobs” were important, she went straight to the Source. Is not the time growing short for us - how many “studies” does it take to motivate us to GET OUT THERE! How many times will we let the “good things” distract us from what Jesus did and would do today.

If we really decide to GET REAL, put down our “study-guides”, and DO SOMETHING - ANYTHING that causes us to really follow Christ, then we will be tempted to be terrified, we will lose many of the relationships we think we can’t live without, we will be criticized by almost everyone, we will be misunderstood by many, and we will often feel alone - especially around the “Martha”s - but in the eyes of Jesus we will see His mission if we look closely enough - then, we just have to decide if we’re willing to follow.

Laying it all down to follow Jesus!: It’s not just a “good thing”, it’s everything! The new believers in my world are counting on us - and just so I’m clear: IF YOUR IDEA OF A GODLY WOMAN INCLUDES THE BEHAVIOR I’VE WITNESSED IN RECENT MONTHS BY SO MANY CHURCH-GIRLS, (”the biggest loser” ring a bell?) - STAY AWAY FROM THE NEW BELIEVERS IN MY WORLD - please stay in your Bible-studies, prayers groups and evangelism classes - please keep your “religion” under wraps!

I guess I could take some comfort in the fact that because all the “Martha”s are going to stay in the kitchen, there’s tons of room at Jesus’ feet. (This might comfort me if it didn’t make me want to weep).

Increase the peace! (and the “sitting”).

Oh yeah,… I DARE YOU TO MOVE!

Published
by
angiebledsoe
on May 30, 2007
in wednesday and women
. 0 Comments

Florida Girl

I’m sitting out by the pool, listening to the birds and planning my rose garden. We are traveling a ton this summer, so I’ll probably wait on the planting - of course, when I get the bug, I just can’t wait to get my hands dirty. It’s a beautiful day, and Byron spent time this weekend making the patio more beautiful because he knows it’s a real place of solace for me. We spent yesterday afternoon with some friends - letting the children swim, and just be kids. It was refreshing, and of course, every day is improved by watermelon and ice cream sandwiches.

I’m thankful today for living in such a gorgeous place, for my family, for my friends, and for Byron who always looks for ways to make me smile. It’s just a few days before hurricane season starts, but living here is worth the storms - kind of like being in the ministry here - it’s all worth it on days like today (or Sunday) when I can focus on the sunshine, the sound of the birds, children laughing, and roses. You can really know I’m feeling the love by this: I’m gonna make my man a pot roast! That really is a metaphor for our relationship - I love roses, and he loves pot roast. So, it’s pretty much a perfect day!

Published
by
angiebledsoe
on May 29, 2007
in family and life
. 0 Comments

The Remains of the Day

The C3 Picnic was great - it was, for me, the perfect ending to a very inspiring day.

I wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I didn’t sing on the platform, I did, however, sing from my seat during the 10:30 service. I really felt the presence of God as Byron reminded people of God’s love and how we should be showing that love to the world around us. And as we sang “…Shine your light - Let the whole world see - We’re singing for the glory of the risen King - Jesus!”, I was quiet for a moment so I could really hear the voices around me - many of whom weren’t there six months ago, now they’re praising God with abandon - and I took a moment to absorb the sound, to recognize what was taking place around me. It gives me strength to keep up the fight - the fight for love! The picnic was a sweet time to spend with new faces and some old friends, and although I thought I would be hurt by who I knew wouldn’t be there, I didn’t really feel that emotion at all - I just felt the love, and love makes it worth it all.

Thanks to the Boane family, Travis and Sandy and everyone who made this a great time.

C3 Rocks - INCREASE THE PEACE!

I’ll leave you with this:

One day, while a blonde was out driving her car, she ran into a truck. The truck’s driver made her pull over into a parking lot and get out of the car. He took a piece of chalk and drew a circle on the pavement. He told her to stand in the middle and not leave the circle. Furious, he went over to her car and slashed the tires.

The blonde started laughing. This made the man angrier so he smashed her windshield. This time the blonde laughed even harder. Livid, the man broke all her windows and keyed her car. The blonde then laughed hysterically, so the truck driver asked her what was so funny. The blonde giggles and replies, “When you weren’t looking, I stepped out of the circle three times!”

(This joke makes me smile because I’m stepping out of the circle, and it’s all good!)

Published
by
angiebledsoe
on May 28, 2007
in church and life
. 0 Comments

The Biggest Loser

I love the reality show “The Biggest Loser”; it has it all: drama, competition, relationship-issues, and ultimately life-change. I had the opportunity to catch a marathon of a past season, and I was absolutely hooked. It fascinated me to observe the difference between how the all-male team and the all-female team functioned. There’s something about putting a group of women in an enclosed area for more than about fifteen minutes; somebody’s goin’ down. And while the men were having their share of competitiveness, - because, after all, it is a game - the women were… well, let’s just say they lived up to the stereotype. The men were more using the strength-through-unity approach, while the women seemed so busy gossiping, and then being offended - back-stabbing, and then being shocked when there was no loyalty - undermining and criticizing, and then pouting over the lack of unity. It was fascinating - and sad.

One girl, in particular, seemed to (although she may have been grossly misrepresented thru editing) always be in the middle of the conflict. In fact, when she was overwhelmingly “voted off”, even by the men, the reason was not: she’s a threat in the game or she’s not pulling her weight in the challenges - it was “she’s an instigator, and we can’t trust her.” As I was thinking about the feelings she provoked in her teammates, I heard IT, and it all became so clear: She leads music in her church back home! SHOCKER!! And I thought, “of course, she’s a church-girl, she’s learned duplicity from the best.”

This reminded me of an incident I heard of recently where a group of church-women (members, at the time, of my church - unfortunately) were in a huddle at a children’s sport practice. They were “sharing concerns” in such an animated and obtrusive way that a non-church member had to rebuke them and ask them to stop. If this were an isolated incident - well, “as if !” We should be ashamed and convicted.

Women have been given a great gift from God: the gift of influence. We use it and often abuse it. I’ve seen it so many times, and have been guilty of it myself - the “holy huddles” of “concern” - the bible studies turned gossip-session - the phone calls and e-mails sharing “prayer requests” or the “I just thought you should know…” Let’s just get real, we are given to gossip - we cut off our noses to spite our face. We give up the ultimate: life-change, for the temporal. We wallow in the muck, when we’ve been given a gift that can cause us to rise up and fascilitate change - LIFE-CHANGE!

If we choose to rebel and not get our…stuff together, everyone loses (and not in the good “biggest loser” kind of way). The list of casualties is never an acceptable loss when we engage in this behavior. We don’t just hurt our “target” - we must ask ourselves who it is that we don’t care about: our church, our community, our friends, our spouse, OUR CHILDREN - because they’re all on the list of losers when we wag our tongues and destroy lives one “prayer request” at a time. We all lose, but the real biggest loser is the cause of Christ.

We have at our disposal the most powerful tool of influence that there is: love. We just, so often, pass it up for more alluring options that make us feel superior and those in our path feel devastated. How much could we change? - Jesus said the most important command is to “love God and love others”, and that “they” will know us by our love - so, how we love others is a direct representation of how we love God. My prayer is that God has mercy on us for using our gifts for the Enemy - beginning with myself. Imagine what we could do if we chose to love first and foremost. For, after all, in the game of life -

LOVE WINS.

Published
by
angiebledsoe
on May 27, 2007
in life lessons and women
. 0 Comments