Year: 2013 (Page 8 of 37)

In Which I Am a Jesus Feminist, Too

November 5, 2013 / Michele Minehart

When my parents returned from their honeymoon, the found their friends had pranked them in every area of the house. Cornflakes in the bed. They dumped out all of my dad’s nuts and bolts and screws and nails into a big pile and then put them back into the tiny drawers all mixed up.

The removed the label from every canned good in the pantry. For months, mom would have to pull a can from the pantry and make dinner from whatever she happened to open. Sometimes, labels serve an important purpose.

Which is why I’m finally okay with living under a label. Thanks to Sarah Bessey, I’m a proud Jesus Feminist. She admittedly took two of the most divisive words in our social language and applied them to herself in a way that endorses love above all things – including gender.

I used to be scared of such a label. “Feminist” meant you hated men or bras or motherhood. But that’s so, so, so wrong. In her book, Sarah opens up the field so to understanding that we simply believe that women are people, too. It goes beyond the complimentarianism/egalitarianism debate and plants us firmly into the Kingdom of God. We believe women are people, too because Jesus did. We call out a system created for elevating the highest and stepping on the lowest because Jesus did.

My favorite part of the book was the chapter on “Reclaiming the Church Ladies.” Perhaps it’s because I’m waist deep in discovering and seeking out what a new paradigm of “women’s ministry” looks like in our current context. Perhaps it’s because I’m registered for the IF:Gathering in February. But mostly, it’s recognizing that women are seeking and hungering after God and imagine if we all worshiped and lived together in such a way that we encouraged and empowered and elevated one another to do the work in which we’ve been called.

Jesus Feminists aren’t just women who want to be pastors, though perhaps some are. Jesus Feminists are simply trying to create a world in which we, and all of our sons and daughters grow into their fullest callings, learning to treat one another with the love and kindness that Jesus taught us. We’re folks who don’t put a limit to the places in which the Spirit of God will move and live and dwell. We come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, backgrounds and beliefs, the most common of which is that we believe that women are people, too, because Jesus thought so.

I never sent mine in, I had trouble deciding on my identity. Sorry, friend!

Now, go buy the book. Tell her Michele sent you.

Candy Land

November 1, 2013 / Michele Minehart

Today, The Morning After, marks big decisions for the household government. Last night the kids suited up and did the heavy lifting of begging and asking and looking cute so to procure a stash of chocolates and artificially colored sugar. We enjoyed a small feast last night. Today we begin the hard work of governing.

It was so much easier when they were younger and had no idea we were stealing candy or throwing it away. Now Mr. Observant counts his “Sour Mans” and recognizes when they mysteriously disappear. So the adults in the household have to figure out what “fair” looks like.

Do we go for Communism, taking all the candy and dispersing only what each needs to keep them from whining? Or take our cues from Socialism, redistributing the contents of the buckets so we can keep arguments of who has more at bay? Of course, JJ votes for straight Democracy, everyone eating what they earn, in which I remind him such an arrangement often leads to those with the most getting sick on their own greed while the poorest cry out in oppression.

In any case, there will be heavy taxation in the land. If we expect a strong educational program and the department of corrections to be able to reform offenders, we must set aside provisions to make these programs effective. Which includes lots and lots of Reese’s for the administration.

When little is enough

October 31, 2013 / Michele Minehart

I did one of the most dangerous acts of our household yesterday: I balanced the checkbook. I’ll be honest: We ended the month with $32 and change. And then I saw that JJ had given $14 of it to the band.

After previously noticing an increase in our spending, I proposed this week we do a major cut so my grocery store run included only essentials: bananas, spinach, grapes, a package of ground beef (a splurge because it was on sale) and our contributions to the upcoming birthday party. I walked out of Meijer $42 proud.

Which means the kitchen required a bit of creativity and a lot of freezer raiding. I found myself rationing my 2 onions. Seriously. I checked my menu plans twice to make sure nothing was coming up that would require an onion. When trying to figure out what to make for lunch, I looked in my fridge and freezer and made something from it – specifically, vegetable soup. I had made a batch of broth last week, had tomatoes from the garden in the freezer (because I’d used all the tomato sauce in an earlier soup), had carrots and frozen vegetables and potatoes abounded. Voila. Lunch. (And it’s one of the kids’ favorites, so double word score).

As I carefully allocated my onions, I realized that I had a stash of garden onions in my makeshift root cellar downstairs. No rationing needed! And when the kids wanted a snack, not only did I have a gazillion fresh bell peppers in the fridge (thanks, last chance cart!) but I had 2 ziplock bags full of slices in the freezer thanks to an earlier stock up session.

We didn’t go hungry at all this week. I even made granola as a snack. The only thing we really missed were eggs (to be purchased tomorrow).

And though the checking account said $32, in all honesty we have another savings account full of options. There is money – it’s just not earmarked for our day-to-day life and I’m a hardcore rule-follower. We’re trying to live within our means, so exercises like this remind us of our careless spending. (Because nothing causes you to ask yourself “do you really need those 3 bottles of wine that are on sale?” like when you can’t have sour cream on on a taco after it didn’t make the short list.)

We have more than enough. And in the little that we had, we didn’t go hungry. At all. We snacked, we ate 3 meals. And good meals! A taco dish, chili, oven fried chicken with mashed potatoes & gravy, vegetable soups, pasta e fagoli soup (total winner! H Boy slurped from his bowl)… and the cupboards aren’t even bare. I’d venture to guess we could go 2 more weeks, as long as no one complained about the hodge-podge nature of the meals as we went. And if “beans” counted as a meal. We have a lot of beans, I noticed.

So while we ended October victorious over the checkbook, my perspective also grew. Sometimes you don’t know how lucky you are until you scale back severely and see that you still have more than enough. We can enter into a season of Thanksgiving truly thankful that our “little” still put us in a pretty blessed situation.

And next week, the cart will be filled to the brim.

That part of the story brings me to my knees every time. I know that I know that I know we’re okay. This was an exercise in restraint, a reminder that we control our finances and not the other way around. We’re not loosing the house or avoiding phone calls, we just want to be good stewards. Folks live this way week in and week out, without the promise of a refill later. I must remember this when I start to get ungrateful or feel “deprived” when we don’t eat out on a whim.

We have more than enough.

Year: 2013 (Page 8 of 37)

In Which I Am a Jesus Feminist, Too

Candy Land

When little is enough

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