My thoughts these days

My thoughts are as riotous as always these days, but I've also been thinking quite a bit about a particular topic close to my heart, even closer than Haiti or Compassion. Several things have been cropping up over the past 6 months triggering these thoughts but the most recent was the Women of Faith conference.

I've always had an aversion to women's conferences. It isn't totally rational or fair of me but there you are. I haven't looked forward to what I always judged to be "Hear Us Roar," kind of events. I didn't see the value of celebrating being a women simply by virtue of our double-x chromosomes. I'm a woman, so what? That isn't an accomplishment on my part. It was akin to having "Pretty Women" conferences or a "Natural Blond," conference. What's the point of sitting in a room celebrating how great we all are?

To be fair, such conferences can be a good thing, you can talk about the unique challenges or blessing of being a women, encourage one another, and appeal to the sensitivities, giftings, and interests of women. But I would much rather spend the weekend at a conference that encouraged and challenged me as a human.

Some would argue that this conference does just that and I'm not out to get Women of Faith, especially because I think they do a lot of really great things. I'm glad the conference exists, it just was one more thing that got me thinking about what it actually means to be a woman of God.

And I'm still thinking. I have some ideas but they're not ready to share yet. Instead I'm going to show you the highlight of the weekend, the only person who got 2 standing ovations and an encore. And, in my opinion the best speaker the entire weekend.


Okay a disclaimer, I'm not a Sandi Patty fan. I've never been and I was not excited for this performance initially. Sandi Patty is mom-music and I listen to Feist and Mumford & Sons, way too cool for Sandi Patty. But she was so incredibly real in her message and I am a big fat sucker for 1) a rocking Soprano 2) Orchestral accompaniments, & 3) Sign Language interpreting, so she blasted my shields away and made me stand and clap and cry and generally act like a big ol' girl.

I almost bought the WOF DVD simply to get this performance. But then I remembered YouTube...