The Marcella Project

At 24, I got pregnant while living in a van. Yes, a van. Steve and I were newlyweds, and we weren’t doing well. It was either get a divorce or buy a van, travel the country and see if we still liked each other. Isn’t that what every Christian couple does when they have marriage problems, I think it’s why Steve and I were never asked to counsel engaged couples at our church!

So, I got pregnant while living in the van. And that took my life in a direction I had never envisioned. I never wanted to be a mom. I remember folding clothes one day on and thinking, “This is not how I thought my life would turn out.” Ever felt like that?

Today’s episode is a continuation in our series lime green, and it’s here we’ve been talking about her, the ideal biblical woman, who as it turns outs, isn’t all that biblical. Today’s episode – You’ve got talent.

This is our second episode in our series called Lime Green, reshaping our view of woman. Today we’re talking about letting go of her, the ideal biblical woman, and embracing the one of a kind never to be seen again person that is you It turns out, what’s being promoted as the ideal biblical woman isn’t biblical at all.

This is our second episode in our series called Lime Green, reshaping our view of woman. Today we’re talking about letting go of her, the ideal biblical woman, and embracing the one of a kind never to be seen again person that is you

It turns out, what’s being promoted as the ideal biblical woman isn’t biblical at all.

Today we're starting a series called Lime Green, Reshaping our view of women. Today's episode is about her, that ideal biblical woman, we've either tried to be like or just totally abdicated. You know, as one woman said to me, "I only go to church on Sunday's, I'm just not like those churchy women. I'm more like a man." What happens when there's an ideal, and we aren't it.

Over these next few conversations, I want us to consider how we've been encouraged to conform, be like her, when in fact, that's not what God wants at all. To do that, I want to go back to when I first bumped into this ideal biblical woman and my journey to realizing I'm not her. And God is so okay with that.

Suffering, pain, and anguish are part of the human experience. God knows it and has given us a tool, a provision – lament. As I look back, I see a shift in my beliefs. Going to hopes funeral and lacking in being loved and loving like Jesus, that lament is a part of my faith journey, but I didn’t know it. Until…well, we will get there, first, let me say this I’ve studied for 30 years, and I missed how much Scripture talks about lament.

I came to seminary to get to know Jesus. When I got there, everyone was saying, “I want to be like Jesus,” but I can’t be like someone I don’t know. So I spent a while following Jesus around in the Scriptures. I tried to learn who this guy was that I’d committed myself

to.

Carolyn prayed for like an hour. What? I tried to pray but could only get up to about 5 minutes. So how could I know this God, and more importantly, how could I know and experience his love?

I came to seminary to get to know Jesus. When I got there, everyone was saying, “I want to be like Jesus,” but I can’t be like someone I don’t know. So I spent a while following Jesus around in the Scriptures. I tried to learn who this guy was that I’d committed myself to. Carolyn prayed for like an hour. What? I tried to pray but could only get up to about 5 minutes. So how could I know this God, and more importantly, how could I know and experience his love?

We're talking about hope, Biblical hope. I probably need to start by telling you what hope isn't and then what it is. Biblical hope isn't about our circumstance, nor is it about having some Pollyanna optimistic attitude. In the Scriptures, we see that hope is about expectantly waiting and many times waiting a really long time.

In this episode, I want to share a little bit about my journey around this idea of hope. You know, after the election in 2016, my male church leaders went radio silent about the sexual exploitation of women by our newly elected president, and I was deeply disappointed. I even felt betrayed. I understood that the Evangelical support was primarily due to this abortion issue, but I just kept thinking, "you can't have a say over my womb, not give a damn about my body being groped or raped," that just isn't gonna work for me. I found over that year and then moving into the #metoo movement and into the #churchtoo movement that something was happening to my hope.