Born Again...Does God have a Womb?

Well, my journey continues: trying to understand how we as women uniquely reflect the image of God. Yesterday, as I was praying and reading, the thought came to me, The phrase "born again" is a reference to a feminine experience!This hit me like a ton of bricks! Having grown up as a conservative Evangelical, the term "born again" was used constantly (almost to the point of losing meaning) as a description of having had an "experience" of becoming aware of relating to God in a new and close way. BUT IT NEVER DAWNED ON ME that only WOMEN GIVE BIRTH so that this phrase is pregnant with meaning (sorry, couldn't resist!) for women.

So, what do we do? If we are "born of God" and "born again" and "born of the Spirit...." these are feminine references about God's action, addressing the fundamental process of being initiated into the family of God. How can there not be a feminine dimension to God? How I never made this connection until I was 45 years old is beyond me...how did THAT happen??? I will have to get back to you on that...but it continues to reinforce in my mind, the fact that NOT using all the images for God provided in Scripture is actually a HUGE issue.

Dr. Kristina Lacelle-Peterson (Chair of the Department of Religion at Houghton College) writes:

Since God is, in fact, referred to with female imagery in various biblical texts, the question is not whether using female images for God will draw us away from orthodox Christianity, but whether using exclusively male metaphors will so distort our view of God as to render our concept of God unbiblical. Put simply: If we reject an entire class of biblical metaphors do we still have a biblical [orthodox] understanding of God?

Why is this all coming up now? Not fully sure. But psychologists know (yeah, I'm one of them) that when we hit midlife, we often reevaluate the first half of life, take stock, and determine what was missing and what we want to make sure we address in the second half of life. Well--what has been missing for me is how I opened this brief post: I am wanting to gain a fuller understanding of what it means for myself as a woman to reflect the image of God.

Woo Hoo! What a ride this second half is going to be!!!!!!

Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father,
How thankful we are to not be "left as orphans.”

We acknowledge with grateful hearts that we are not “Fatherless”

But hear our cry, O Father,
Are we in this day, nonetheless, left to be “Motherless?”

Hear us, in your Mercy, O God:
We have voiced our plight to our brothers,
       Courageous among them have responded and affirmed,
       And some of them have also been ridiculed.
       Yet unlike Zelophedad's daughters
       Many continue to deny us our inheritance in Your Kingdom.

To whom now shall we turn?
There is no where else to go but to You,
    Creator of our own souls, made also in Your image.
    When justice is denied,
     And the oppressed are powerless in their plight,
We turn to You.
We cast ourselves on Your mercy,
Seek you with ashes on our hearts,
And rend our souls.
Fasting from seeking power and positions,
We seek You, God of all,
And long to hear You speak.

What have we lost,
By not knowing all of who You are?
We would never want to presume,
But seek the Truth of all Your Fullness.

We seek not only for ourselves,
But for the sake of Your Church.
She is often powerless in our day,
     Defrocked due to disobedience and abuses.
Hear us O God,
Not only for ourselves,
But for a world that needs You desperately,
And as Women,
We wonder if our time in You is now.     -Pamela Trice  7/25/2013

What/Who is Energy/Chi?

One of my instructors in massage therapy school was Randy Cummins, a Shiatsu practitioner in Chicago. I so appreciated his thoughtful and "chill" approach to teaching us. Several months ago I read a past post on his blog about "My Relationship with Chi (Energy)" and thought it was so sublime--that I wanted to share it with you all:

      The moment I heard that voice, the eternal hum, resonating and reverberating throughout my physical and energetic bodies, in that instant, I knew it was love.

      Chi – primal and eternal, motivator of action, purveyor of dreams, elusive by nature, saturating by design.

      My energetic soul mate and I have walked hand in hand, informed by the sage council of Shoshin Shiatsu, sharing with us its preventative properties, its base wisdom of stretching the fascia, opening and lubricating the joints, balancing the effects of gravity and emotion.

      The work continues to open slowly to me, informing my connection to the breath. The breath, my most intimate of all teachers . . . constant companion in this life journey, showing me with all immediacy the importance of being in the moment. Giver and sustainer of life, an anchor to my wandering mind, keeper of my hara fire, eternal example of taking in all inspiration and letting go . . . giving all with every exhale.

      In the context of Shiatsu, the breath as viewed in another and self, two-edged vajra, dissolving illusion, moving one into witness.

      The breath of practitioner, again sustains and centers, enhances connection through palpation, floats the weight of the hand down on a cloud of intention, sinking through skin, penetrating muscle, entering bone energy, clearing a path to the house of the true self.

       To have the faith in self to pull back, wait till the mud settles and the water clears, so one can recognize the underlying cause of it all – the kyo (yin) behind the outward jitsu imbalance (yang). The woman behind the crime, to paraphrase from the Neijing.

       A continuous process of letting go of result, expectation, adulation . . .  learning to honor and respect the pause . . . the stillness at the beginning and end of all movement . . . till we are delivered to the door of beginner’s mind.  --Randy Cummins,  May 25, 2012   (Black Swan Productions)

Two things....

One, This is a beautiful description of how a practitioner not only approaches their work--but also their life. I have always been fascinated with the concept of integrity--i.e., what you see is what you get--no matter "where you slice it!" When something is integrated--it is fully itself--to its core. My own best work flows not from my training (although that helps) but from my PERSON. This is particularly true of any work that is interpersonal in nature.

Secondly, I appreciate the fact that this description of chi/energy is conceptualized as feminine. I think few men understand how healing it is to have something written that affirms the feminine in such a powerful way. 

As I have mentioned in another post (I think :) the Hebrew word in the Jewish sacred writings (Old Testament) for "Spirit/Wind/Breath" is "ruach" which is feminine. It is unfortunate that in the Christian sacred writings (New Testament) the Greek word for "spirit" is "pneuma" which is neuter. In the West, we have a pretty negative view of anything that is "neutered." Although I must admit, it is a rather fitting "fix" we have in our Christian traditions that have in most cases "neutered" the power of the Spirit of God. How we got from a "feminine spirit" to a "neutered it" is a theological concern.

Gendered language makes an impact....more than we know until we read something that catches us by surprise.....