Happy new year. May 2023 be a new and fresh beginning with God working his marvellous wonders, wherever our days take us – from the kitchen sink to podiums, or board rooms, or local church halls.
Following breakfast yesterday, I went to tidy up as usual at my kitchen sink. Rinsing dishes, I noticed the water would not drain. It stood in the sink, not a pretty sight. Try as I might I could not get the water to go down the drain.
My flat is an old one, the pipes are old, the drains are old. But that is where I live and pay rent, and I expect things to work properly. Nevertheless, after years of experiencing the same issue, I realized a drain cleaner was the answer. Applied and it worked. Until next time.
If only there were new drainage pipes.
Watching various newsfeeds on different topics, it appears that many things have backed up into the old drain in the kitchen; issues that seemed somewhat settled but were lying in the pipes, circling the drain and not receding. For example: women’s roles and identity in the world.
Instead of a clearer perspective, it seems the dirty water remains in the sink and will not drain. Discussions about the equality of women have become filled with more vitriol rather than a quest to discuss and reason together. The sink has dirty water.
Men and women were created to co-labor, co-lead. Insight is gained from men and women working together in leadership whether it be home, the business world, or church, anywhere men and women are together.
When the discussion of one gender being 'less than’ or ‘assigned to the proper place’ is engaged it is like a backed-up sink, or an issue that continues to circle the drain and not be cleansed.
The challenge is for women in leadership, at whatever level, to rise, with integrity and godly grace and humility. As the world becomes more chaotic, this is the opportunity to speak up, act with wisdom and timing, not backing down in order that the issue of equality in some kitchen sinks at least, can be cleaned out and men and women serve together.
Yet, it is also the time at the beginning of a new year, to respond with a heart that does not have dirty, judgmental water, rather to clear the drain in order to make room to clean up and clean out the dirty water.
[Dr Gail Stathis is a church leader inAthens, Greece and Vice President and one of the co-founders of EME Ministries. She is the founder of the Glyfada Christian Academy (K-12 program in Greece)].