The "Hard and Holy Things"

I do not regularly read Ann Voskamp's blog, but today as I was flipping through Twitter, blogs and anything I could find to try to make sense of what is happening in Mosul, Iraq, I came across this quote by her, 

"...because the world has enough women who know how to do their hair--the world needs women to do hard and holy things."--Ann Voskamp

I know nothing about this quote, other than as it was Tweeted. What I do know is that for some time, God's Holy Spirit has been drawing me toward these "hard and holy things", and because of fear (being "different"; perceived as "radical"; what comfort I may be asked to give up), I have not been listening. He and I have been working through this though and the post you are currently reading is a nudging from Him that this is a "hard and holy thing".

With great effort I attempt to keep myself from political commentary. I believe God needs no earthly kingdom to accomplish the work of His Kingdom. When I speak out against the treatment of the marginalized of our society, it is because He has laid the message on my soul. I am not a mouthpiece for any political agenda. Even when I write book or movie reviews, discuss gardening or the latest locally owned business we've found, it's because I truly want us to get back to becoming the people God created us to be. 

I look for Him in everything.

I would love to only share with you my latest recipe or my new favorite book. That's the easy stuff. But the cold, stark reality is that we live in an evil world, controlled by the "ruler of the kingdom of the air." (see Ephesians 2:2) This Enemy is feverishly attempting to eradicate God's people...God's Kingdom. I am recognizing that as I often say to my children, "Time's a-wastin'!"...because it is. Thus, I can bury my head in the sand no longer. It is time to do "hard and holy things".

When I search Twitter with the hashtag #IraqiChristians and I'm confronted with the gruesome reality of beheaded children, heads impaled on stakes and my crucified brothers and sisters of the Kingdom and children who died without food and water because they fled into the mountains...it is time to do "hard and holy things". 

When I do a Google search to try to understand why the Arabic letter above is being used to express solidarity with my Christian family in Iraq, I learn that Christian businesses and homes are being painted with a red "noon", which is the 14th letter of the Arabic alphabet and it is the equivalent of our Roman letter N. But it is used because it stands for Nasara or Nazarenes...an Arabic word for Christian...I weep because having grown up in "The Church of the Nazarene", I fully grasp perhaps for the first time the label of Nazarene. [source found here] To be a Nazarene is to embrace the "hard and holy things".

We have stood by and watched as Rwanda, Bosnia, Congo/Sudan, Syria and now Iraq have seen their peoples shredded through the tyranny of evil. It is time for "hard and holy things".

There is a voice inside of me that calmly attempts to assuage my passion with words like, "it is to be expected"; "we are in the last days"; "it will get worse before it gets better"; and the ultimate justification for malaise, "but what can I do?"

But the Voice that calls me to diligently seek His Kingdom urges me to "hard and holy things". 

So what can I do? 

I can speak out. I can use the letter "noon" to show my solidarity with my Christian family. I can embrace that I do have a voice, even though my Enemy would have me believe no one will listen.

But...

There is One who listens, and when we pray, all of Heaven is silent for half an hour! Eugene Peterson writes that my prayers return to Earth with Reversed Thunder. "Prayer reenters history with incalculable effects. Our earth is shaken daily by it." (Peterson)

Pray. Protest. Pray. Petition. Pray. Promote Truth. Pray.

It may not seem like much to my human way of thinking, but each of these causes ripples and waves that last throughout all eternity, and my Enemy will continue to draw the battlelines against them. 

Battle.

Not something I look forward to, but..."the world needs women to do hard and holy things."