Yesterday I was so weepy. I honestly had not spent a lot of time thinking about the fact that we were going to have a female Vice President. I have had other things on my mind. Then I watched the inauguration, and it hit me hard. I couldn’t hold back the tears.
As a female pastor, I have experienced resistance to my calling. I have had men tell me that I was being rebellious by answering God’s call. I have been asked how I like doing a man’s job. One guy asked me how I liked doing my husband’s job. For many years, envelopes addressed to Gary and I acknowledged him as a Reverend and me as a Mrs. Sometimes the resistance was more indirect. I have had many comments on my clothes, my shoes, and my hair through the years. Gary cannot remember anyone doing that to him.
I especially loved when Vice President Harris talked about standing on the shoulders of other women. That is very scriptural to me. We are not self-made individuals. If we succeed, we do so by the grace of God that comes in the shape of love and support from those around us. When I answered the call to ministry, I did so without hesitation. I had been raised in a nondenominational church from the age of 13. The pastor was female, in her late seventies, serving as the lead pastor of a mega church in Detroit. No one questioned her age or her gender. All anyone cared about was that she preached Holy Spirit inspiring sermons.
The book of Hebrews reminds us that we are all surrounded by the love and influence of those who God put into our lives. Those who nurtured us and told us we were enough. “So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, 2 and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter." Hebrews 12:1-2 CEB
One of those witnesses for me was Rev. Myrtle “Mom” Beall. I will be forever be grateful for her outstanding sermons and her courage to lead a church from the late forties through the end of 1970.
Yesterday, I thanked God for all the people who supported Kamala Harris throughout her life so that she could stand on their shoulders and be sworn in as the first Female Vice President.