Made to Order

I had a male friend tell me once that women make too many lists.  According to him, women spend too much of their time writing out insignificant details of things they are not completely certain about. His theory was that financial lists are the only ones that men make. They want to know what they have, what they owe, who they owe, and whatever other elements that will lead to and sustain financial solvency for their family.

I was, of course, making a list when he mentioned this, and it got me thinking. He may have been on to something.  Women make grocery lists, shopping lists, to-do lists and so many more. The most significant of which being “The List”, you know the one, the Mr. Tall Dark & Handsome List.

Here’s how that list becomes a problem. Most times when a woman creates that list, she is either in an impaired or influenced state.  She makes the list after a breakup, or after a friends’ wedding.  She makes it as a Christmas Wish after spending Thanksgiving with a grandmother and aunts who joined her mother in badgering her about the ticking of her biological clock. She makes the list after spending Valentine’s Day alone…for the third year in a row.  

Most recently, I’ve noticed that women make the list soon after joining church.

The problem with this is that the church only respects position, it has no regard for process.  In your walk as a Christian, especially as a new Christian, you have to be vigilant in prayer over biblical misinterpretation.  Everyone warns you of False Prophets, but the most dangerous person that you can encounter as a new Christian is someone revered in the church, who by all human accounts appears to walk uprightly, but misquotes and misinterprets scripture.

Arguably, the most misinterpreted scripture rained upon new Christians is II Corinthians 5:17, “therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. Again, the issue is one of process, NOT position.

As Christians, we have to stop pushing this idea of microwave renewal, and the Babes in Christ must stop nursing at the breast of illogical misinterpretation. As my former Bishop would say, “stop lying to folk! On the day that you come to Christ and get baptized, you go down a dry sinner and you come up a wet one!” It is not until God leads you to work out the renewal of your mind that you truly become a new creature.

Old things don’t pass away by themselves; they have to be pushed out by new acts of right thinking. A promiscuous man, addicted to pornography is never going to dry from baptism ready to spend the rest of his life having regular sex with the same woman, just like a woman who spends all of her time at bars using her kitchen to store takeout food containers and wine bottles is not going to dry from baptism ready to cook for a family and trade those wine bottles for baby bottles.  The very thought is just not realistic.

So, when you’re making that list, always remember this, we serve a God whose blessings are tailor-made. Just as your journey is different from the journey of every other woman, your blessing will be too. Your testimony is made to order, just for you. Don’t let the unmerited promptings of others lead you to a miserable existence because you placed your order before you knew what you wanted.

Follow Me as I Follow God

@RevealingRuth