Happy Friday Storied family!
We’re a few months into our Devotionals for the Deconstructing Christian series, and we hope you’re enjoying it. Just wanted to take a quick minute and thank everyone who participated in our Storied feedback survey this week and provided thoughtful answers about how we can continue to serve this community through this platform.
If you didn’t get a chance to fill out the feedback survey and would like to do so, just hit reply to this email and let us know (open to paid subscribers only). We’ll be closing the window for feedback next Wednesday.
Other than that, we hope it’s starting to feel a bit like spring wherever you are at in the world today.
Much love,
Gabby + Chris
No Second-Class Citizens in Heaven
By Gabby Llewellyn
“If a woman is held back, minimized, pushed down, or downplayed, she is not walking in the fullness God intended for her as his image bearer, as his ezer warrior. If we minimize our gifts, hush our voice, and stay small in a misguided attempt to fit a weak and culturally conditioned standard of femininity, we cannot give our brothers the partner they require in God’s mission for the world.”— Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” — Gensis 2:18 (NIV)
“The first word of this expression, sometimes translated “helper” (NIV 2011), means “strength, help, savior, or rescuer.” It uses a word that in Scripture nowhere else refers to an inferior, but always to a superior or equal. Sixteen times it describes God as the helper, the rescuer of people in need, their strength or power; the remaining three times (Isa 30:5; Dan 11:34; Hos 13:9) it describes a military protector. It never implies subordination or submission to the one rescued. It means literally, “a strength as in front of him,” namely, “a strength corresponding to him.”— Examining the Twelve Biblical Pillars of Male Hierarchy by Philip P. Bayne
We were in Birmingham, the morning before a show. It was 8 am and venue was still loading in all our band equipment, which meant I had a few hours to myself before I needed to be setting up the merchandise table and haggling with the venue staff over the fee.
I decided to steal away to a coffeeshop I found on Yelp a mile walk into town. I didn’t invite anyone, not even Chris, because alone time on the road was a precious commodity. Nine months into a world tour I was ready to a bit a space to drink my coffee, eat my avocado toast in anonymity, and collect my thoughts.