Saturday observations

Empire thinking vs Kingdom thinking

Hello friend!

I hope your week has been gentle. And if not, I hope you had a meat mallet to show it who’s boss!

I’ve had an awesome week, a week full of so much pleasant busy-ness, I feel very blessed and ‘in the zone’, so to speak.

I made a cake this week for a friend at work who just left on eight weeks’ long service leave. Here it is - (well, a photo of it, I can’t actually give you the cake)

It smelled every bit as chocolatey and good as it looks! My friend took it home without sharing (sad face) but that was the reason I baked it for her, so she’d have treats for the first couple of days/weeks depending on how much her kids get.

On Saturday morning I found myself at one of the huge shopping centres here in Perth, Karrinyup Shopping Centre. It’s in quite a posh neighbourhood, and so 90% of the shops are the type that I can’t even afford to look in the window of. I went there to get a present for one of my sons, but I literally drove to the shopping centre, walked to the store, got the thing, then walked out again and went to a nearby Op Shop to shop for myself!

A lot of the stores in this shopping centre are the type where they have one wall of handbags, or the back wall gently draped with maybe twenty items of clothing. I figure a handbag from a place like that will probably cost me more than I’ve ever spent on bags in my entire life, so I just kept on shuffling past.

Something struck me. And no, it wasn’t a random football.

As I walked through the huge cathedral-like hall, observing people (a favourite pastime of mine), what the current ‘trends’ are (not what I was wearing!) and what the stores I was passing were advertising, I felt an odd coldness. It took me a few minutes to figure out what it was. Check this out -:

Where are the faces?

I realise there are probably thoroughly researched and very deep, meaningful marketing reasons behind the fact that almost all the store dummies I saw didn’t have faces, and some didn’t even have a head. It’s so you’ll concentrate at the clothes - I guess?

But as I walked through the place, I really got the message that in the World, it doesn’t really matter about you. You are of little or no consequence. As long as you buy The Right Clothes from The Right Shop, and hang around with The Right People who are also wearing The Right Clothes, and are seen in the Right Places, on the Right Social Media Platforms, then maybe, just maybe, you might Be Somebody. If you totally abandon yourself to what the World (or The Empire as some of us like to call it) asks of you, then you just might fit in.

These dummies announce that it doesn’t matter about me. It’s all about wearing the right clothes, preferably these ones hanging in the window of this expensive shop. And hey, don’t get me wrong, some of those clothes look really nice (just don’t look at the price tag), but none of them are really ‘me’.

I drove away from the spangly shopping centre and went to the nearest Salvos and Good Sammy stores - good second-hand clothing shops where your money goes to helping charities who help people in need. I found a couple of items of clothing, things that felt good on my body, and made me feel comfortable, and made my purse feel very comfortable, too.

Then, as if God wanted to show me the EXACT opposite of the shopping centre scenario, on Saturday afternoon, I went to a Women’s Retreat at a friend’s house.

This was just the afternoon tea, my friends. It was an early indicator as to how awesome the whole afternoon and evening was. I got strangely addicted to the pea chips. I shall have to purchase some now...

Eight Christian women.

From very different backgrounds, but the same church.

Gathered together to sing, to eat, and to create.

I can’t really put into words how utterly blessed I felt when I got home Saturday evening. I felt like I’d been given the biggest gift I’d never even thought of asking for.

Time.

Time to make room to step away from work, from children, from family, from the World.

Time to stop, to worship together, to pray together, to eat together, and to be given time to create art. I mean - who does art? I can’t draw to save my life, but as we were chatting before we broke off to find a quiet space to create our art, I had a very definite picture in my mind of what I wanted to draw. After 45 minutes of scribbling pastels across a page, it kind of looked like what I’d seen in my mind. It meant something to me, anyhow.

Time.

It’s such a precious commodity. So precious in fact, that you can’t buy it. It’s right here, right now. Passing us by so imperceptibly. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. Decades.

When was the last time you stopped and made room for time? It’s a weird concept, right? You’ve got all the time in the world! You’ve got tomorrow and next weekend, and that thing you’re planning next month. Right?

But what if none of that matters?

What if the Empire thinking is wrong? That thinking that I can do that tomorrow. I’ll rest later. I’ll catch up with that friend next month. I’ll set aside some me time another day.

When you allow yourself to sit in the stillness, especially somewhere like that retreat, it’s such a blessing.

To make room for God to speak.

To make room to be listening.

To listen to each other and lift each other up. The sisterly love in that room was so pure and strong - women upholding other women is such an empowering experience.

When women pray together, when women uplift other women, when women make safe communities to worship, to cry, to laugh, to create art, to be who God made them to be - we come away stronger. Knowing we are enough. That God loves us just as we are, warts and bruises and battle scars and messy lives and broken hearts and all.

Blank, faceless store dummies in the Empire, telling us to look like they do so we can fit in.

Or true warmth, love, uplifting and acceptance in the Kingdom, telling us that we are good enough just as we are.

I know which one I choose.

Have a great week!

Maggie x