Posts

Showing posts with the label love

What do women want?

When I hear this phrase, my mind goes immediately to the Mel Gibson film 'What Women Want' (because, y'know, films...). For those of you unaware of the premise, Mel Gibson plays a chauvinistic business executive who, after getting electrocuted in the bath, is able to 'hear' what women are thinking. Much hilarity and eventual introspective naval gazing occurs as he navigates the implications of hearing what women really think. His initial reaction is to work out how he can manipulate this ability to his own end, reflective of his original inclination to objectify women. Eventually however, listening to the innermost thoughts of women leads to better relationships with his daughter, colleagues and potential love interests. Of course we would probably do well not to read TOO much into this film. It makes some pretty unhelpful comments about how when a man is so attuned to a woman's thoughts and desires that he must be gay for example. Does it play into and reinforc...

Masculinity and Submission

You know those moments in life when you feel like you're seeing for the first time? I'm having one of those moments. I've been staring at Ephesians 5 verses 22-24 (for many years actually), seeing only verses 22 and 24 and kind of ignoring Jesus sat right in the middle of them.  It's ok though. In the great words of Oprah Winfrey "Do the best you can, then when you know better, do better" and for me this speaks about an acknowledgement that we must keep looking forward, with an awareness that the next 'known' better knowledge is just round the corner. God has a plan and a purpose for our lives and the progress within it (Jeremiah 29:11) which should spur us on to discover what that is with joyful expectation. John 16:12-13 tells us that the Holy Spirit will move on us when we are ready to receive new truths, not before, and this is hugely reassuring. Of course this doesn't mean that we should be passive, just that we should know that there are seas...