The Privilege of being a Christian Woman in America!

Or whatever country you may go...

I grew up during the civil rights era. I saw women and men losing hope and thought that they would ever have equal rights with their white counterparts all over the country. If this was true in NY, it must have been more true in other states, where the covers of provincial behavior dull the senses to such things. Learning the glory and the beauty of walking uprightly and not thinking yourself above or beneath other people is an evolving view, on this side of Martin Luther King.

I lived and analyzed with the premise that all that my earthly father thought about "Blackness" was eroneous and not to be accepted. I did all I could to find what there was about "Blackness" was owned of God and blessed by His presence. At first, I imitated this woman, who I thought was the epitome of Christian virtue, including her posture. I came to find out that she had scoliosis and her posture was not her humility. It took years to find a balance of posture, humility and human pride.

How do they grieve with such hope? How do they praise with such abandon? Why does God seem so close and is that true? On the one side of "Blackness". And then, in terms of my observation of other people groups...Why do they have so much thought and truth exposed and not rejoice in these things? Why does God seem far, when they seem so penitent? Doesn't God own the truth that they are preaching? Why does God seem so far here and so close there?

God is truly the God on the mountain and in the valley, was my final analysis. God is present, whether close or far. He is present when we gather. He has given us all things richly to enjoy. The coldness of doctrine and the old things and the heat of present experiences, are both from His holy hand. We must accept and love the wonder of the presence of God in each estate. I don't know why it took me so long to see that very clearly.

Learn to love who and what you are. Walk uprightly and know that one day every valley will be exalted and every mountain and hill made low!

The wonder of living in a post civil rights era has lent my generation with some advantages of living apart from our cultures, if we choose to. Sometimes this was good and sometimes this wasn't so good. You can be so close to beauty and miss it. You can try to live a life that God didn't intend you to. You can despise many things about your own culture that God loves. I really don't know what that means for your generation. Not having lines of demarcation regarding your ethnicity. No Blackness, no Whiteness, perhaps this is good and perhaps there is no identity at all.

I want you to be the best woman you can be. Not the best Black woman, you can be. Although, I never want you to deny your ethnicity. I want you to see your ethnicity as your launching pad and not your limitation. I want you to enjoy the beauty of every culture, as if it were your own. I want you to deny the pitfalls of every culture, as if it were your own. Only in Christ can we do this. Enjoy the "all things richly" and only let sin make you cringe and not skin color or cultural mores.