I am totally sick of this assignment. All novelty has worn off. I just want to wear a pair of jeans again. All of my jeans have some sort of stupid stretchy substance in them. I am now layering all of my one-fiber cardigans on top of each other in order to keep warm. I am really glad that this assignment came later into the Spring, because I would have been unable to keep the clothing law in the colder months. It’s kind of strange to think about how most things that go on the lower half of a woman’s body have some sort of stretch in them, but the tops usually don’t – at least in my wardrobe.
To give some sort of summary of the things I have learned, I would put at the top the experience I have had with the clothing law. I felt more consciously limited and submissive following this law than any of the other laws. The discussion in Wenham about the various animals that were determined ‘unclean’ was fascinating and opened me up to an opportunity to think about how God views human relationships with animals.
It was an interesting exercise to become aware of the people in my environment enough to stand up to honor those with gray hair in my presence. This also made me think about how age is not as valued today as (I presume) it was in the ancient near East. Any of the gray-haired people I discussed this law with seemed sort of embarrassed by the gesture. I attended a women’s ministry event at my church on Sunday and I was more impressed by the elderly women than I would have been had I not been participating in this assignment.
I had a discussion with a classmate today where he joked that he was focusing more on the “heart” of Levitical laws – quitting the clothing law specifically. We laughed about this and I thought later how different an experience this assignment is. When approaching scripture I usually try to engage my heart first and then focus on my actions afterwards. This week I am focusing on my actions and engaging my heart shortly afterwards. I love this, it is teaching me how connected my life is: my actions and my heart are intrinsically linked.
good stuff there at the end - totally true of our generation though. focusing on all inward stuff, therapy, feelings etc... with the danger of ignoring our actions. you gotta have both. actions and good behavior seemed to be the thing of previous generations. tricky stuff.
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