submitted by Stephanie Cockerm

"There is a time for everything, and everthing on earth has its special season."--Eccleasiastes 3:1 (NCV)

I was thinking to myself the other day that I don't have enough time for myself. If I'm not at school, I'm at work; if I'm not at work, I'm doing photography, and so on. In everyone's life, one must have time for themselves such as having that QT (quality time) especially with Christ. By having time for other things but not having time for yourself can hurt you later in life. I've learned that this current semester and told myself what I should do to increased self-time:

1. Perhaps have lunch at a odd restuarant. Psychologically your body beings to feel good about itself.
2. Maybe get my nails and toes done. It's okay to pamper the body every now and then.
3. Take a leisure trip and explore. Whenever I take leisure trips (meaning I'm still in the same state, just different city) I go to clear my mind.

I can go on-and-on telling you what I should do, but what about you yourself? Do you have time for yourself? If not, I advise you to develop that QT with yourself. We as women have to face reality--we only have one life, why not give devote some time to yourself? I know that it is easier said than done, but think about it, your body deserves it....at least that's what I think.

To leave you with something to ponder about: 1. Time is not your friend...it leaves you in the dark. 2. time is not on your side. and 3. time runs out on you. So while you have some time, devote it to first GOD and then the point, yourself. Remember that anything you do can be done only if you ask in the name of Jesus. Amen

Stephanie is a student at Grambling State University in Louisianna. She is an NNPCW Coordinating Committee member.

I was a vegetarian for a year, but that ended abruptly one night when my husband (then my fiancee) came to my seminary dorm to study, a sausage breakfast sandwich from the local Wawa in hand. It was a shameful end to my vegetarianism.

I became a vegetarian because of my growing concern about factory farms, especially those that produce meat. The first two chapters of Genesis are in my top ten favorite passages of scripture, and one of the main reasons why is that I love the image of all of creation living in harmony with one another and with our Creator. And so it is important to me to "tread lightly upon the earth" as is often said. I know some would argue that this would mean becoming vegetarian, but, for better or for worse, I am someone currently feels that I need to eat meat. So the question became how to do that in a way that fits with my faith values.

I currently buy my meat (and my veggies) from a farmer named Adam Barr. He raises grass-finished beef, and he tells me his animals are happy. We don't eat much meat anymore, since it costs more to buy from a small farmer, but that's okay. I know that this is a step for me toward living in better harmony with others: people, animals, the rest of nature, and our Creator.

This Thanksgiving we are going to feast on a locally-grown, organic turkey. A shout-out to the folks at the PC(USA) Enough for Everyone program for encouraging the church toward alternative Thanksgiving traditions!

I know these are just small steps, and I know these aren't the only steps toward living out our call to "do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with [our] God" (Micah 6:8), but these are the steps that I have felt called to take in my walk as a disciple of Jesus. What steps are you taking? How can we better walk together with creation and our Creator?

submitted by Hillary Mohaupt

I have been thinking a lot about resistance lately. Not only the formal, organized Resistance I'm supposed to be studying for my senior seminar, but also everyday, unorganized, heartfelt and sometimes desperate acts of resistance towards systems of unnamable oppressions.

Because I am reading about the French Resistance, I have been impressed at the sheer amount of scholarship around two percent of a population that is so divided and so politically diverse. But my own study is recognizing that that "two percent" cited as the actual proportion of French people who resisted Fascism during World War II doesn't take into account the actions of non-French people, or the majority of those of French women.

But, most importantly, as I'm reading, I wonder what resistance looks like today. In an historical account it's easy to set up good versus evil, to render events clear-cut; it's easy to claim that we would be on the side of the resisters. How does each of us, though, participate in the oppressions? How do we doubt that resistance is possible and practical?

Progressive Christians cite Jesus' meals, foot-washing and associations with outcasts as Biblical evidence that God is on the side of the oppressed. Resistance against oppression, then, is a moral and spiritual duty—and that's often how women who participated in the French Resistance justify their decisions to shelter, aid, fight, and guide during a time of great social and political turmoil.

Does God still call us into that place of resistance, to the sides of those who are the most forgotten, the most abused? How do we follow that calling, in the fullness of our faith?

Hillary is a senior at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.
She is on NNPCW's Coordinating Committee.

I recently read an article entitled "Confessions of a recovering feminist," written by a female M.Div. student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary here in Louisville. You can find the article here: http://www.towersonline.net/printer.php?grp=issues&id=196

The author makes the claim that "feminism is at the very heart of our fallen nature," and that her recovery from feminism is about "repentance of [her] desire to be in control and to raise [her] fist against God's created order." She goes on to note:

Only through repentance and faith in Christ am I, or any one for that matter, able to renounce rebellion and submit to the lordship of Christ. Recovery from feminism also means truly believing that God's Word regarding gender, and everything else for that matter, is true.

I agree wholeheartedly that it is only through repentance and faith in Christ that we are able to renounce rebellion and submit to the lordship of Christ. What I don't agree with is that feminism is a rebellion against God's created order, or that a woman's submission to the lordship of Christ should result in her one-sided submission to men, based solely on gender, in either her personal or public relationships.

The good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ is that in Christ, we are set free from sin. We are set free from the curse of Genesis 3, in which humans are put into conflict with one another, with the land, and with the animals. (See Genesis 3:14-19.)

The discordance described in Genesis 3 is not God's created order! God's created order, which Christ came to restore, is beautifully described by Paul in his letter to the Galatians, in which he writes about Christian freedom.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sister; only do not use your freedome as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 5:13-14).

In Christ, we are called to a particular type of freedom, one in which we are asked to serve one another as equals.

For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God though faith.... There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26, 28).

The unequal roles of "free" and "slave"--consequences of the curse of Genesis 3--are done away with. The unequal roles of "male" and "female"--also consequenses of the curse of Genesis 3--are also done away with.

There are times when we need to be reminded to serve the most vulnerable members of Christ's body as equals. That is where Christian feminists, liberation theologians, etc. best serve the church. These members of Christ's body call us in faithful and creative ways to remember what it means to be free in Christ.

I am blessed to be a part of a Christian feminist community, NNPCW. We commit to feminism as an extension of our Christian belief that all people are made in the image of God as equals. We affirm women's ability to think theologically, value women's diverse experiences of all systems of oppression, acknowledge our participation in such systems, and accept our responsibility as Christian women to work for God's fuller justice.

Far from being at the heart of our fallen nature, feminism can be a great means toward freedom and equality in Christ.