By Marilyn Ehle
“let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
In 19th century England, it was not unusual for women of wealth “of society” to wear clothing weighing up to forty pounds. Heavy, multiple layers of skirts dragging on the ground not only impeded women’s freedom of movement but made it nearly impossible to run away from real or imagined danger on the street. Stories circulated of women dying in house fires because they could not easily escape from candle flames or fireplace sparks. The overriding culture of the day demanded compliance with what seems to us, ridiculous social norms.
In much of the western world, women today experience legal, and even social, freedom. The right to choose education and career is not even questioned. We chafe under real or imagined restriction in any area of life.
While scoffing at forty pounds of clothing, we too often stumble under other kinds of weights: our own or others expectations, our upbringing, the call of consumerism, the ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ of our culture and even our religions.
Nineteenth-century English women who dared to battle the culture of their day not only put off restrictive clothing but bravely stepped into areas and activities of life in order to make an impact on society. Catherine Booth, who along with her husband, William, founded the Salvation Army experienced strong criticism for her visible ministry.
Although the names of Annie Gordon and Nellie and Topsy Saunders are not widely known, they died in a massacre of British missionaries in 1865. Their determination to “lay aside” what was considered a safe and proper role for single women not only cost them the approval of others, but their very lives.
Too often we women confine ourselves and our influence in the world to the four walls of our homes. While raising children is a high calling and one to be taken seriously, we insistently hear God’s voice to an even higher calling: following Him into all the world, into roles not yet imagined… without the weight of our skirts.
Lord, I admit that I often use my role as wife and mother as a reason to not see beyond my walls. Help me educate my heart and mind to see the world as you do. Perhaps I need to pray as often for the children in China as I pray for my own. Teach me, Lord.
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