The New Eve - Lewis Robert [34]
Mary's choice of trusting God's word led to a completely different set of actions. She didn't strike out on her own or seek to end her pregnancy. In fact, she did just the opposite. She drew closer to God, cherished her pregnancy, and carried through with her marriage to Joseph. In spite of the fear she felt and the shame and misunderstanding that she knew would follow, she courageously aligned her life with God's callings. Nowhere is that alignment better seen than in Mary's remarkable statement, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
What They Expected
Both Mary and Eve expected good to come from their beliefs and actions. In making her break, Eve obviously envisioned even greater personal fulfillments and adventures than God's regime could provide. Her imagination, no doubt, ran wild. What new freedoms will being like God give me? What wonders will knowing everything, good and evil, open to me? How much greater will I be? How much happier? Here was the life she'd been missing, though before this moment she never once thought anything was missing. But now, caught up in the serpent's words, it all sounded too good to pass up. So she went for the life she believed could offer her more than God had given. And indeed she found more—more pain, sorrow, and regret than she knew existed.
Mary expected great reward too, but in her case it circled back to what God had promised her. We admire the courageous obedience she displayed, especially when we know the major payoff is still a number of hard years away. But Mary's faith held firm to God's word. Amazingly, she exulted in God's goodness to her before any of the really good results came to pass. In Luke 1:48–49 she said, “He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.” Mary was celebrating God's goodness at a time when all she could reasonably see was the scandal that would soon visit her. She was about to be a social outcast and a cause for gossip. Yet with the eyes of faith she trusted God and believed her life would be blessed with His best. Nine months later that's exactly what she got.
So here are the lives of history's two most important and influential women. Eve and Mary are the women of the Bible. In reviewing their divergent responses to God, to temptation, and to what each considered the better life, I find a biblical definition of authentic womanhood that I believe offers vision to any woman's life. Here it is:
A real woman embraces God's core callings, chooses wisely, lives courageously, and expects God's greater reward.
What This Means to You
Let's unpack each phrase of this definition from a twenty-first-century perspective.
Embraces God's Core Callings
Those callings should be clear to you now. Namely, a woman is to pursue deep companionship with a man; launch healthy, godly children into the next generation; and advance God's kingdom in ways appropriate to her gifting. These are the callings around which the rest of your life should be prioritized, organized, and managed.
When any of these three goals are neglected or sacrificed by you as a woman for whatever reason (overemphasizing one goal at the expense of the others or compromising or abandoning one or more of these goals for other ambitions), trouble is usually waiting on the road ahead.
As mentioned in chapter 1, Sylvia Ann Hewlett set out to write a book about a dozen women of what she called the “breakthrough generation.” These are trailblazers who broke through bias and barriers to get their fair share of male-dominated fields. As these women were turning fifty at