Reflections on IJM’s Global Prayer Gathering
You do not have to read far into the news to realize that there is still a problem of epic proportions when it comes to how women participate in societies around the world. Be it cultural or sexist, fearful or power-hungry, women are oppressed, victimized and left in poverty. The equality that is still being fought over in America (where women are still paid less than men for the same work) would be welcomed and celebrated in so many other countries. More than just equality, the empowerment of women is something that, after praying alongside so many women and hearing sermons and speeches from women who work at International Justice Mission, I couldn’t help but realize upon reflection that women are incredibly dangerous.
Dangerous to the status quo.
Dangerous to inequality.
Dangerous to the powerful.
Dangerous to societies and cultures built on oppression.
There are so many women leaders at IJM. They are leading projects to train NGOs in India to combat bonded labor, leading offices from Southeast Asia to Africa, and facilitating key components of the work of justice. When doing the present work of God’s kingdom, there is something deeply significant that it is being led by so many women. It is a witness to the world that women, when empowered and given the same dignity and opportunity as men, can do amazing and extraordinary things with their lives. More importantly, women in leadership roles on the front line of justice are the best examples of the freedom that is being ushered in by God’s coming kingdom: for the widows whose land is stolen, the mother who is trapped in bonded labor and the young girl held in captivity in a brothel, to see women participating in their rescuing is the greatest testament to how different the kingdom of God is than the powers of this world. From this vantage point, women are not dangerous, they are co-heirs and co-participants in the kingdom.
The kingdom of God is constantly bearing witness and judgment against the powers of this world. Through hospitality, grace, mercy, compassion, justice and love, Christ’s kingdom is shown to be not of this world. More and more, I have come to see women on the front lines of kingdom work as a meaningful and necessary opposition to one of the patterns of this world: to steal, oppress and brutalize young women and widows. It is by the grace of God that we are seeing the fullness of God’s kingdom come, slowly but surely, and leading the way are not men or women but both, one in Christ, united to be the presence of Jesus on this earth.