I used to think that the Jesus parts of me and the feminist parts of me, that they could co-exist like toddlers play with blocks. They could be in the same space, they could share some of the same stuff, but they didn’t work together, they weren’t interested in the same things.

I used to have my thoughts about this world and a womans place in it. I used to learn about how the world systematically tells women that they aren’t enough, and they are never going to be enough. I used to be horrified at the statistics about women in this world, underfed, undereducated, undervalued. I use to have all these thoughts and feelings I still have today, but they were in a box marked “feminism.” These wrongs were wrongs that feminists care about, this brokenness was one that feminists taught me. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the box marked Jesus.

I used to have my thoughts about this world and how God walks in it. I used to look at the brokeness and beg God to redeem it. The children starving,  the lack of water and education,  the depravity in this world. I used to stand in worship and cry out in the darkness, weep over the brokeness of this world. I knew that Jesus cared about these things.I knew that He was broken over it too. I know your kingdom is coming Lord, but isn’t it supposed to be here?

Still, I didn’t put the pieces together. I didn’t understand. I still thought there were seperate pieces that perhaps didn’t contradict each other, but certainly did not go together.

I started noticing the women of the Bible, (more acurately the Holy Spirit pointed them out to me) specifically the women of the gospel. I started noticing how deeply Jesus loved women. He touched them, he taught them, he called them whole.

And suddenly all the pieces fit together. These two tiny block towers merged into a great block castle. Jesus was a feminist. He acted on the assumption that women were fully people. And that is how we fight the darkness of the world. All of it. We look each other in the face. We declare each other enough. We see women as whole and fully capable, as made in God’s image too. The feminist ideas came so easily to me, because Jesus had already shaped my heart toward redemption.

Of course I am a feminist. Jesus was. I just want to be like Him.

The amazing Sarah Bessey birthed a book appropriately titled Jesus Feminist. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. We are celebrating her book launch with a synchro-blog. Join me?