The “S” Word: S = Sufficiency

This past week was our OCR and Welcome Week at Northwestern University.  The new students and freshmen have gone through a grueling week of orientation and preparation for their college careers.  We’ve been having a tremendous time meeting some of the new students and enjoying the new friendships we have been able to start with many of them.  Personally, in the midst of the fun-filled and busy activity, I haven’t had much time to think through and consider the significance of being an O.S.W.  In many ways, it seems like there are just more important things to think about right now!  However, in the midst of all the activity and acts of service these past few weeks, there were some significant realizations that I’d like to share about being an O.S.W.

It shouldn’t define you:  As a counselor I often think about the importance of having a solid identity in Christ.  To know yourself fully in the way that you have been created as a child of God and growing into the man or woman of God that you are called to be are important themes that are in the forefront of my mind all the time. The risk that the O.S.W faces and I’m afraid to also say, the temptation we face is to allow this season of our lives to define essential aspects of our personhood, womanhood and character.  The first thing that others need to know about us is not whether or not we are single or how old we are, but that we are children of God and that what defines us is that we are mathetria - female disciples of Christ.

Living within the tension:  Perhaps I will be stepping onto thin ice as I share this portion of my thoughts.  As an O.S.W, in the back of our minds we often have that nagging question of timing and urgency.  Our biological clocks are ticking and culturally, we know that after a certain age your stock drops exponentially.  These thoughts are often unarticulated or perhaps translated into more palatable and less vulnerable words.  But there are significant fears that the O.S.W faces as we hear the clock ticking.  Now in Scripture, we see a track record amongst the women of the Old Testament.  Many took matters into their own hands when they faced situations that required faith.  The tension that we face in our humanity, is to either take matters into our own hands or not do anything at all.  If you think about it, there are many tensions that we face in general - there is that tension of living in the world but not being a part of it, and there is the tension of telling the truth, but doing it in love.

Thankfully, God has made provisions for the O.S.W in the midst of living within the tension and that is that He is the one who defines our identity and He is the one who will be our sufficiency as we determine how to handle the various struggles of our circumstances.  In the end, the question that is being asked by the Lord and that the O.S.W must respond to is - “Am I enough for you?”