I had a major conflict as a young child. My parents raised me to be respectful and polite. My mother taught me at a young age how to take care of a household. I began to do my laundry on my own when I was twelve years old. Chores were every Friday and my sister and I would fight to see who would vacuum or clean the bathrooms.
The conflict still remained, as much as I wanted to be a wife someday I was also was growing up to be an independent woman, with a mind of her own. This question remained, why would I want to submit to any authority but my own?
In my teenage years, I strayed away from the dream of ever becoming a wife and was fully independent and the word submission was big, ugly and scary. I was taught from the word of God that women are the ones to submit and this made me angry and left a bitter taste in my mouth. I could not understand why God would put that rule in the bible. Isn’t woman degraded enough? We should be able have our cake and eat it too! Because of this form of thinking, later on I had many relationship problems not only with men but also with authorities.
Yesterday, Chris my team leader, fellow Canadian and friend and I were discussing about submission. He mentioned that women today are raised to be independent.
On the world race though it is the opposite. For instance, here in Kenya we cannot go anywhere unless there is a man with us. For independent women this is torture, but this is what is required of us and so we lay down our rights.
World Race is about living in community. I thought it would be like camp or having a roommate, but it is nothing like that. It is where you are transformed and where authenticity begins. Where the unlikely person you become friends with, is the one who will challenge you the most. It is where you learn to surrender your wants and needs, for the sake of putting others first. Ephesians 5:21 say’s, “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.�
Instead of being independent people, we are learning to be interdependent, which defines as the two or more people dependent on each other. We were never intended to walk this journey with Christ alone. We were created for each other with a purpose in mind that is, “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.� Ephesians 4: 12-13
I asked my mother once if it’s hard to submit. She said it isn’t hard when you love with perfect love that comes from Christ. Submission isn’t a big scary word after all. It is a word that carries peace, love and endurance. When you submit, unity remains. I am for one not as afraid as I used to be of submission. My mother is right when you start to love through Christ, anything is possible.
